IN THE 
SUNLIGHT 
OF HEALTH 



CHARLES 

BRODIE 

PATTERSON 




Class __B_/^^^ 
Book_ '^Z Z 



^_/ 



Copyright }J^. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSPT 



IN THE SUNLIGHT 
OF HEALTH 



IN THE SUNLIGHT 
OF HEALTH 



BY 



CHARLES BRODIE jPATTERSON 

Author of "The Measure of a Man," "Dominion and 

Poiver," "Li'ving Waters," "The Will to be Well," 

"Seeking the Kingdom," "Beyond the Clouds," 

"The Library of Health," "Neiv Thought 

Essays," "A Neio Heaven and a Nenu 

Earth" Formerly Editor of 

MIND and the ARENA 




FUNK ^ WAGNALLS COMPANY 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 






Copyright, 1913, by 
CHARLES BRODIE PATTERSON 

[Entered at Stationers' HaH,' London?] ; 

Printed in the United States of America 

Published, September, 1913 



J^l^ 



I 

©GI.A354745 



«0 






CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 



PAGE 

I. Introduction — Dedicated to 

The Reader i 

II. The Living Substance . . .19 

III. Divine Energy in Motion . . 37 

IV. The Coming Race .... 59 

V. The Living Way . . . -79 

VI. Scientific Living . . . .103 

VII. Heredity, True and False . .135 

VIII. Conformity to Ideals . . -155 

IX. States of Consciousness . .171 

X. Cause and Effect . . . .201 

XL Mind and Body . . . .217 

XII. Thought-Picturing .... 249 

XIII. Regeneration 261 

XIV. Habits, How to Acquire or 

Overcome 275 

XV. Mental and Spiritual Healing . 295 



VI 

CHAPTER 



CONTENTS 



XVL Self-Heallng . . . 
XVII. Healing at a Distance . 
XVIII. Life's Relationships 
XIX. From Mind to Mind . 
XX. From Darkness to Light 



PAGE 

337 
359 
373 
395 
423 



Chapter I 

Introduction 

Dedicated to the Reader 



INTRODUCTION 
DEDICATED TO THE READER 

This chapter is In the nature of a confiden- 
tial chat with the reader of this book, and I 
trust it will not be considered an impertinence 
on the part of the author if he makes a 
few suggestions to the reader. The value of 
a book to any of us is what we are able to 
get from it. Now what we get from it too 
often depends on what we bring to it. If 
the reader starts with his mind prejudiced, 
that is. If he prejudges the book by having 
formed his own conceptions In advance, he 
is not likely to get much that Is going to bene- 
fit him. It Is not the part of wisdom to judge 
for or against, before one has investigated 
all sides of any given question. The one who 
brings to any subject an unbiased mind will 
be by all odds the best fitted to get the 
greatest amount of good and truth from it. 

No one should ever flatter himself by as- 

3 



4 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

suming that he knows all that is to be known. 
One may be in possession of a great deal of 
knowledge and yet have very little wisdom. 
Knowledge may be a mere accumulation of 
facts that one has never demonstrated, and 
without personal demonstration one is only 
taking on the authority of some one else 
without really knowing for himself. A ju- 
dicial position is to know things through 
proving. The author grants that there are 
many things that we have to take on the 
authority of those who are best qualified to 
speak. But everything that is really vital to 
one's personal life must not only be known 
but proved to one's own satisfaction. How 
necessary then must it be to keep the mind 
open, to be receptive to the Spirit of Truth 
in order to draw the greatest amount of good 
from everything we are investigating! 

Bigotry and prejudice always stand in 
the way of a greater knowledge of truth. 
I have known many people to go for 
many years in opposition to everything in the 
nature of advanced thought, only to come at 



INTRODUCTION 5 

last to see what terrible mistakes they had 
been making and how they had lost years of 
valuable time because of prejudice, bigotry, 
or other false conceptions they had formed 
in their minds, all because they had refused 
honestly to investigate for themselves. 

Sometimes we find people fearful of losing 
their religion because of any new departure in 
the study of things other than they have been 
accustomed to study. The very fact that 
they can take this view should show them 
that such religion as they have is hardly 
worth their while pinning so much faith to. 
To the one who is seeking truth solely 
for the sake of the truth, the deeper he goes 
into all these studies the greater will be his 
knowledge of truth. If one is seeking only 
to bolster up certain systems, then it were 
better for his peace of mind that he should 
leave investigation of all higher or all ad- 
vanced thought alone, because the greater 
one's knowledge of truth becomes, the more 
necessary It constantly becomes to make new 
adjustments to life. In the development of 



6 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

human life one change must follow another 
in order and by sequence; the beliefs and 
things that were necessary at one stage in 
the human development are at another no 
longer necessary, and if held to, only retard 
or hinder development rather than aid it. 

Life should ever be a process of becom- 
ing, of leaving old things behind with the 
object of making all things new. The old 
has served its ends and purposes, and hav- 
ing done that for us, it can do no more; 
indeed, we only add burden to life when we 
try to make it answer for the present. The 
little state of consciousness must make way 
for the larger. What we know in part 
must become known in whole. All life is on 
an ever-ascending scale, and in the ascent 
of man new knowledge and new understand- 
ing are necessary at every step of the up- 
ward way. The one who continues to live 
in the old becomes fossilized, and instead 
of living life in a real way is existing only 
as a cumberer of the ground who brings 
forth no fruit. 



INTRODUCTION 7 

Very often the reader has a self-compla- 
cency — a condition that makes possibly for 
his own self-satisfaction but not for mental 
or spiritual progress — wherein he thinks that 
the knowledge a book contains might prove 
exceedingly useful to others, but not of any 
benefit to himself. People may know many 
things in a mental way without really know- 
ing them. Such things may exist in their 
minds as mere theories concerning life, but 
the proof of real knowledge is really in the 
use we make of it, and not simply what we 
think about it. If people can truthfully say 
that they have known and proved the things 
they are reading, then In such a case they 
may be justified in thinking or saying that 
there is nothing for them in the book altho 
It might prove of decided use or value to 
someone else. Again, another reader may 
take up the ground that the theories con- 
tained in this or some kindred book are 
beautiful to entertain the mind with, but that 
they are not practical. Anything that Is 
really beautiful goes hand In hand with the 



8 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

practical. There is no beauty without some 
use for such beauty. In the end we shall all 
find that beauty has some practical effect on 
the life of man. Everything that is beauti- 
ful serves some use, some purpose in life. 

This particular book is not intended to fill 
the minds of its readers with ideals that can 
never be realized, but rather is it intended to 
help people who really desire to be helped; 
it is meant to become a means for helping 
people to help themselves. If it succeeds in 
doing this, then its author is satisfied. The 
real help that will be derived from it must 
always come not from what the book says 
but rather from what it suggests to the 
reader who is willing to take the suggestions 
and put them to practical use. Little if any 
good can accrue to any one through what he 
reads if there be no true mental digestion or 
assimilation. The mental digestion corre- 
sponds to understanding and the assimilation 
to the use we make of the theories we under- 
stand. Digestion and assimilation are both 
just as necessary to the mind as to the body. 



INTRODUCTION 9 

So this book, my dear reader, was not 
written for any one else save for you. After 
all, each person is responsible to himself for 
the use he is making of his talents. Sug- 
gestions or ideals exist only to be realized by 
the mind of the one who entertains them, 
and one can profit or refuse to profit by them. 
One will get from life in an ever-increasing 
way that which he brings to it, but we never 
get in any permanent way something for 
nothing. We must be always giving in order 
to be always receiving. We must be always 
seeking in order to be constantly finding. In 
this way each individual works out his own 
salvation. No one can do this for him. His 
creeds or his beliefs are of no avail if not 
given practical application. His highest 
Ideals will at best be air-castles if they are 
not developed and made tangible by mental 
and physical effort. People may exist in the 
world and do little if anything in the shape 
of work for themselves or any one else, but 
they are not truly living and can not get 
from life anything that is really vital to life. 



10 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

We must work In order to grow. There 
is no salvation for man apart from the sal- 
vation that he Is able to work out for 
himself with his own mind and hands. 

It has been said that the blood of Jesus 
cleanses from all sin, but that word "blood" 
is the symbol for life, and It Is the life of 
Jesus that cleanses from all sin, not the life 
that He lived, but the life of which He is 
the living example for us. The life of Jesus, 
as It Is lived by each Individual, Is what Is to 
bring to mankind the real salvation from sin, 
disease, and death, through the substitution 
of righteousness, health, and life. Jesus 
brought life and Immortality to light, but 
this life and Immortality must exist In one's 
consciousness before It can be fully estab- 
lished in a man's having a body that will be 
as lasting as his mind and soul. We must 
remember, moreover, that the true conscious- 
ness, In order to benefit us to the full, must 
always come because of our working for It. 
The desire and the effort bring It to us. It 
can come In no other way. Desire Is prayer; 



INTRODUCTION 11 

but we must work for everything we pray 
for, otherwise the desire goes unrealized. 

In all the way through life, practical ap- 
plication must go hand in hand with the 
ideal. This book is intended to suggest, and 
the reader will be benefited only through an 
effort to follow the suggestions it contains, 
and he can prove the truth, or lack of truth, 
in the book only through such efforts. When 
he finds any suggestion and acts upon it, it 
really becomes a part of himself. It is not 
what some one else has said or written that 
counts; the real authority is the experience 
one has gained. One may suggest the truth 
to another through the spoken or written 
word, but one can not give of that truth to 
another because only as one receives and lives 
can it become real or vital truth. When 
any one does this it is not necessary that he 
should use the speaker as the authority for 
anything that he may say, because the real 
authority is to be found within his own con- 
sciousness. Truth is not individual but uni- 
versal. An individual may discover it and 



12 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

bring it to the attention of other minds, but 
the other minds must live it as well as know 
it in order to have it become truth to them. 
I wish to take no personal credit for any- 
thing I may have written in this book. To 
the degree that the book is true, that truth 
will testify for itself. If the book contains 
things which are not true, or only partially 
true, such things may be accredited to me 
personally as failure on my part to realize 
the truth in a larger and a more perfect 
way. So in responsibility for the truth, the 
sole responsibility I assume is for my own 
mistakes and errors ; and, therefore, the ques- 
tion of the reader's following my suggestions 
is in no sense to be construed as following 
me, or using me in any way as an authority. 
Truth is the one and the sole authority of 
life. Too often the personality of the 
speaker or the writer is made for the time 
being to overshadow the truth. No matter 
how wonderfully he may be spiritually de- 
veloped, he is not the truth but a channel 
through which the truth flows. The New 



INTRODUCTION 13 

Testament writers did not claim for Jesus 
that He was the life or the Immortality, but 
rather that He brought life and Immortality 
to light, that He showed to others the path- 
way whereby to those who enter therein 
should come the new consciousness of life 
and immortality, wherein everything would 
pass from the old, the temporal, and the 
changing to all that Is real and eternal. 

I would ask of those who read this 
book not to hurry through It, for they will 
derive greater benefit through reading one 
chapter or less at a time than by reading 
more. It Is much better to read a little and 
turn that little over in the mind by using 
one's own best thought than either to accept 
or reject Its teachings without giving any 
real thought to It. I often think that there 
is quite as much mental laziness among peo- 
ple as there Is physical laziness. Most people 
do not really want to think for themselves, 
but want other people to do their thinking. 
They employ their doctors to do practically 
all the thinking about their physical being 



14 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

and their clergymen to do their thinking for 
their religious life, and then rest content, be- 
lieving that such work can be done for them. 
Some day they will awaken to their mistakes. 
A book or a lecture should be designed 
not so much for the making of thought for 
others as a means to the awakening of 
thought in the others. If it serve this pur- 
pose it fulfils its office, for anything that will 
cause people to use their own thought and 
reason to the full does, far more for them 
than any process of instilling thought from 
one mind to another can possibly do. The 
real incentive should be to develop our own 
minds so that whatever we read or listen to, 
if it be worthy, shall always receive our care- 
ful, thoughtful consideration. Remember it 
is possible to gorge the mind just as many 
people gorge the body. If it is worth while 
to do anything, then it is worth while to do 
it in the best possible way. The thoughtless 
or the careless way will never make for riches 
of any kind, material, mental, or spiritual. 
It will be found that the best way of doing 



INTRODUCTION 15 

anything is always to give one's full atten- 
tion to it, to the practical exclusion of every- 
thing else for the time being. Some people find 
that it is much better either in listening to a 
lecture or in reading a book, to give their 
minds up to listening or carefully reading, 
and later to use their minds in reflecting on 
or confirming what they have listened to or 
read. This is the orderly way of doing things, 
and in most cases will give far the best re- 
sults. If we decide for or against any propo- 
sition at the moment we are reading it or 
listening to it, our decision may so influence 
our minds that, to a marked degree, we may 
fail to receive benefit that might otherwise 
come to us. Let the mind be unbiased at 
the moment, keep it open and receptive, and 
later one will be better able to pass judgment 
on it. It is much easier to reach impartial 
judgment through having received anything 
in a full or a complete way, than it is to 
form judgments from a partial knowledge of 
any subject. Very often people only disclose 
their own ignorance when they speak for or 



16 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

against some subject about which they know 
little if anything. When any one asserts an 
opinion he should be able, if called upon, to 
give good and sufficient reasons for the posi- 
tion he entertains. 

Many readers, because of lack of dis- 
crimination on their part, fail to get from 
books that which would prove beneficial to 
them. Because they differ from the author 
on some point it seems to become a necessity 
with them to differ on every point. It would 
seem that the wiser way would be to take 
whatever good we can find, just as I believe it 
is the part of wisdom, and not only of wisdom 
but of charity, to recognize all the good that 
is to be found in any one, no matter how 
much evil he may seem to possess. It is only 
the good and the true that has intrinsic value 
whether in a book or in a person, so the all- 
important thing should be the recognition of 
the good and the true. There may be many 
things that we read of which we do not get 
the real meaning. It is much better to let 
them pass until greater light or understanding 



INTRODUCTION 17 

comes, than to condemn them and, perhaps, 
later find that the condemnation was caused 
by failure on our part to perceive and to 
consequently interpret aright. 

Some people, in reading a book, apparent- 
ly do so with the object of finding as many 
points of difference or disagreement with 
their own views as possible, and perhaps in 
their discussion of the book afterward they 
bring all these things as evidence against the 
truth of what the book contains. This Is not 
a profitable thing to do, and no real good ac- 
crues to the reader from it. The reality of 
life is not established through any kind of 
negative thinking. The unity of all truth 
will come through agreement and not through 
disagreement. It is much better to emphasize 
anything that is good than to dwell on some- 
thing that may be erroneous or evil. Our ob- 
ject should not be to build up barriers that 
separate men from their fellow-men, but in 
all systems and in all religions to endeavor 
In so far as In us lies to find points of agree- 
ment. Points of agreement make for greater 



18 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

unity and in greater unity is greater strength. 
In the New Testament there is foreshadowed 
a time when all shall come into the unity of 
faith. Whatever is good and true remains. 
Sooner or later that which is partial becomes 
whole and complete; sooner or later love 
overcomes hate, life overcomes death, faith 
overcomes doubt. It is because this is true 
that man's consciousness is an evergrowing 
one. In the process of his evolution there 
must come a time when all that is unreal 
shall pass away; there must come a time 
when everything deemed to be evil, seen in 
the light of a spiritual understanding, shall 
appear only as the shadows of life that have 
caused the mind to turn toward the light, to 
the fulness and truth of all that is real — of 
all that is Eternal. 



Chapter II 
The Living Substance 



THE LIVING SUBSTANCE 

There Is one primal substance out of which 
come all forms, one animating Life, one guid- 
ing Intelligence, that lives and moves and has 
its being both within and outside all substance. 
It is a question of degree, and degree only, 
and not of kind from the tiniest form up to 
the whole universe; from the lowest expres- 
sion of intelligence as seen in the urge of the 
atom, the embryonic functioning of the proto- 
plasmic cell up through the highest expression 
of vegetable, animal, and human life. Intelli- 
gence, which from first to last is guiding and 
directing the part, is guiding and directing the 
whole. The Roman seer Seneca, teacher of 
the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, said: "There is 
but one stuff and but one Spirit. No matter 
how minute the form may be of which it is 
composed, the original prime substance and 

21 



2^ SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

life Is in the form, no matter how little or 
rudimentary that Intelligence it may express, 
it is one with all Life and Intelligence." The 
guiding and directing Life and Intelligence 
acts through all form according to a definite 
Plan and Design, and expresses every purpose 
through Love and Wisdom. 

It is my aim and object to trace and explain 
the chief workings of this Life and Intelli- 
gence in its principal manifestation on the 
planet — man. 

It is an accepted fact in physical and mental 
science that man recapitulates and epitomizes 
the history of the human race on this planet. 
He rehearses physically or passes through, In 
bodily form and structure, during the short 
periods of his embryonic and fetal life, the 
countless forms it has taken ages for Life to 
produce through evolution. Not only Is this 
true, but we go still further and affirm that 
man recapitulates and epitomizes the physical 
history of the whole creation, animate and in- 
animate, organic and Inorganic ; for the physi- 
cal body of man is found to contain each and 



THE LIVING SUBSTANCE 23 

every atom or element to be found in the 
physical universe, no element or substance hav- 
ing as yet been found in the earth, the sun, or 
the farthest star which does not enter into the 
physical organism of man. Man's body may 
consequently be said to be a summing up of 
the physical or material universe. Man, how- 
ever, not only keeps a record of physical 
change and evolution, not only writes his 
physical book of life of the past, but also 
keeps a record of his mental life, living 
through, in his own mentality, a recapitula- 
tion or a rehearsal of his ancestral lineage. 
This ^recapitulation it required ages to have 
separately and individually lived, through 
the countless number of his long line of 
ancestors,- being, in his own case, crowded into 
the shorter period of time from conception, 
"the beginning of individual personal exist- 
ence," to so-called adolescence, a name given 
by our recent psychologists to that period of 
life called the new birth, when higher and 
more human traits of character are born — the 
period at which man begins his character- 



M SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

istlcally peculiar human development. But 
the greater book of life is yet to be written, 
when man shall have come into a full con- 
sciousness of the Life and Intelligence living 
and moving within him, guiding and directing 
him in all his ways, and when he shall have 
perceived that not only does this Life live in 
him, but that he lives in All-Life; that in a 
mental and spiritual way he epitomizes the 
very Soul of Universe, the Supreme Life and 
Intelligence; and that, only as he unfolds to, 
and consciously realizes this Intelligence, has 
he entered into his birthright. This conscious- 
ness the Master possest when He said: "I in 
them, and thou in me, that they may be made 
perfect in one," the consciousness of a son of 
God, and joint-heir with Christ, feeling, 
thinking, acting as the whole feels, thinks, and 
acts, one with All-Life and Intelligence, epi- 
tomizing in life all that has taken form in the 
outer and all that lives, breathes, and moves 
and has its being in the inner. 

In a brief and general way I have con- 
sidered man's past ; from now on it will be my 



THE LIVING SUBSTANCE 25 

object and purpose to dwell more upon his 
present, the development of his wonderful 
powers and possibilities, and what they fore- 
shadow as to his future growth and develop- 
ment. While in no way denying or decrying 
indeed, heartily supporting, the science which 
has to do with the forms of life, I nevertheless 
contend that there is a mental, yea, a Spiritual 
Science of Life and predict that when that 
Science shall have become whole and complete 
all the three, physical, mental, and spiritual, 
will be included; that in our quest after truth, 
we are in no way seeking to destroy but rather 
to fulfil; that whatsoever is true in science, 
philosophy, or religion, will live and that it 
should be the end of science, philosophy, and 
religion to seek solely for truth, regardless of 
pre-formed ideas, opinions, theories, dogmas, 
and creeds. It is the whole truth which must 
come to replace the partial, and it is only the 
whole truth that will make us wholly free. 

Struggle and contention between science 
and religion has existed in the past because 
neither science nor religion had as yet come 



26 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

into the possession of the whole truth. Each 
had grasped a part, and, mistaking that part 
for the whole, each in turn became antago- 
nistic and dogmatic. But conditions are chang- 
ing both in the scientific and the religious 
world. The scientific world no longer be- 
lieves, as it did fifty years ago, that there are 
only five avenues of knowledge, viz. : man's 
five senses. Science in its onward march has 
left the things of the past behind "and is press- 
ing forward to those things which lie before. 
It is fast leaving the realm of effects to study 
the causes which produce all effects. Science 
is in the process of becoming religious more 
rapidly than the established religions of the 
earth are becoming scientific, and yet all over 
the world there is a demand being made for 
a scientific religion. The great body of hu- 
manity is no longer swayed by the doctrines 
of future punishment or reward. Man real- 
izes that the living present is of much more 
importance to his real welfare. 

Man is coming at last to see that he is 
working out his own salvation; that what- 



THE LIVING SUBSTANCE 27 

ever has been accomplished in the past has 
all been done through his own efforts, and 
whatever he accomplishes in the present or 
future will be only through a continuation of 
effort on his part. He is discrediting the fables 
told of him by his so-called spiritual guides; 
he is beginning to realize that he is living In a 
universe of law and order, of cause and effect; 
that he is the maker of causes that bring 
good or evil effects into his life; that through 
conformity or lack of conformity to law he 
rewards or punishes himself. 

The position of the scientific world to-day 
is a far more tenable one than that of organ- 
ized religion as represented by the Churches. 
During the last fifty years, as scientific theory 
after theory has been exploded by the more 
careful and thoughtful investigators, the 
scientific text-book has been In a continual 
process of revision. Science has this to its 
credit, that it is at least willing to test all its 
own theories to the ultimate and in this re- 
spect is far in advance of organized religion 
as represented by the Churches, whose chief 



28 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

position to-day, as of old, is that of dogmatic 
assertion, regardless of facts. Looking upon 
Its creeds, dogmas, and ceremonials as being 
almost divine In their origin and nature, it is 
never willing to investigate, and only gives 
up its superstitions when forced to do so by 
outside pressure. The Church holds to all 
this with a tenacity worthy of a better pur- 
pose, and instead of being to-day in the van 
of human progress, it stands rather as a bar- 
rier to all the really advanced religious, phil- 
osophic, and scientific thought of the age, 
holding only to the letter of the past, and un- 
able to read into It anything of the Spirit 
which, to some degree at least, at one time 
animated the Church. It has become a life- 
less organism, a dead body without any real 
or vital belief in its own teachings. The 
Church, however, no longer holds the mo- 
nopoly of religion. Outside the pale of the 
Church there are to be found men of a 
more vitally religious spirit; men who are 
real seekers after truth; men who have lost 
all thought of bolstering up any system of re- 



THE LIVING SUBSTANCE 29 

llgion or subscribing to any creed or dogma, 
and whose aim and object is to know the 
truth In order that they may live It. 

A new religion Is coming which will fit the 
needs and demands of those who are hunger- 
ing and thirsting after righteousness. Men 
and women, who have become famished, sick, 
and diseased through living on the bread 
which the old theology had to offer, are now 
hungering and thirsting for a knowledge of 
God and such knowledge will not be denied 
them, for ''he who seeks shall find; and to 
him who knocks the door shall be opened." 
This new religion will have neither reward 
nor punishment written Into It; In It will be 
found no angry and revengeful God, but an 
All-Loving Father-Mother God, who Imparts 
of His Love and Wisdom to all who desire It, 
causing His rain to fall upon the just and 
upon the unjust, bestowing His sunshine alike 
on the good and the evil, living and mani- 
festing Himself In the lives of all His chil- 
dren. This religion will tell us that we are 
all children of one great Father and that 



30 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

which seems to be reward or punishment 
coming from an angry or a revengeful God, 
is only the result of obedience or disobedience 
on our part to the eternal laws of life. I re- 
peat again that we reward or punish our- 
selves; that law and order are as eternal a§ 
God is eternal; that conformity with law 
and order, or in other words adjustment, 
means mental and physical health; and that 
all law is fulfilled in one word: "That ye 
love one another." It will teach that all 
should live from the center of life outward 
to its circumference and in doing this each 
succeeding vibration in mind or body will be- 
come as perfect as the first vibration which 
started from the center of all life, caused by 
the great heart-throb of Love. Through the 
spirit of love man will become at one with 
God, for "God Is love," and also at one with 
his fellow-man, thus becoming truly adjusted 
to both inner life and outer environment. 
Let no one be discouraged because of failure 
to realize the full spirit of love; for while 
love Is the fulfilling of the law, there are 



THE LIVING SUBSTANCE 31 

many steps In the pathway of life, each and 
all necessary and essential, leading up to its 
perfect fulfillment. 

The Nazarene spake many parables con- 
cerning the Kingdom of God. On one occa- 
sion. He likened it to a man who went forth 
to sow seed, some falling by the wayside, 
some among stones, some among the thorns, 
and some on the soil which had been pre- 
pared for it. Only the seed falling on the 
prepared soil brought forth fruit after its 
kind, all the other seeds falling elsewhere be- 
ing wasted. There is the same natural prep- 
aration necessary in the life of man; he 
must not only learn to control his sense- 
nature with all its various emotions and pas- 
sions, but must also learn to control his 
thoughts. He must make each lower phase 
of life subordinate to the highest one he has 
developed to; not in any way to eliminate 
or outgrow his body and sense-nature, but 
rather to make them subject to mind, and to 
subject mind in turn to the All-Inclusive 
Spirit. It is only in this way that man can 



32 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

realize oneness with all life. In the way to 
the Kingdom of God there Is no turning to 
the right or to the left; It Is simply knowing 
and realizing that the unseen God and His 
visible creation are all there Is; and while 
doing this, and holding stedfastly to this, 
one's life can never be diverted or turned 
aside from the true way of life. 

Progress Is eternal. Creation Is a never- 
ending act, and In the last analysis we are 
brought face to face with the one great fact 
of life that a Supreme Life and Intelligence 
Is guiding, directing, controlling all forms 
through and by which It expresses Itself; one 
Life that lives In and creates all forms from 
the electron to man; one Life that Is neither 
matter alone nor simply the function or 
property of electron, atom or all, but which, 
animating all, expresses Itself through func- 
tion and property; one Life that moves and 
lives and has Its being both without and 
within form, showing through a supreme In- 
telligence that It knows how to create the 
form best adapted and most suited to fitly 



THE LIVING SUBSTANCE 33 

express the Plan; one Life manifesting al- 
ways a purposeful action In and through cre- 
ated forms. The object of life in its progres- 
sion and constant effort Is to reach perfection 
in form and In function, and to express In 
an outer way every Inner Plan. All outer 
forms are to be viewed In the light of a rev- 
elation of the mysteries of God. The whole 
visible creation may be viewed as God's vis- 
ible book of life. 

Man, when he comes to know and under- 
stand his own written book of life, will be 
able to read this larger book; when he has 
worked out the Plan written Into his own life 
and understands its full meaning, then, 
through Its aid, a new world, as It were, will 
be opened to him, a new world for a more 
complete expression of still greater things to 
take form and be exprest on earth, because 
he will then realize, as never before, that 
he is cooperating with the one Life and In- 
telligence to create a new world. Man's 
greatest accomplishment in every department 
of life is yet to come. No matter how great 



34 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

or how wonderful certain epochs of life have 
been in the past when the world blossomed 
out in literature or in art, that past filled 
with all its beauty and wonder Is only In 
reality a foretaste of the glory that the 
world shall yet see. The world of to- 
day looks back with pride to the civiliza- 
tion of ancient Greece. That civilization 
was characterized by such a wonderful de- 
velopment that the world has seen nothing 
since then which can excel or even equal It. 
Its philosophy, its literature, its art all stand 
preeminent In the history of intellectual de- 
velopment, and hand in hand with Intellectual 
development came the development of human 
form. Physical development reached its high- 
est stage of perfection, showing plainly that 
the body takes form from the mind. I think 
that we have every reason to believe that 
the sum total of both the mental and the 
physical development of the early Greeks 
came from a love or a desire for beauty In 
Its final expression. That the early Greeks 
loved freedom is an evidence that they loved 



: ^\ 



THE LIVING SUBSTANCE 35 

truth, and were keenly desirous to observe 
all the laws which would make for real bet- 
terment. As portrayed by the Greeks we see 
the highest stage of mental and physical de- 
velopment that has yet been attained; but 
this means that in no full sense had they 
reached their possible ultimate development, 
for it is a notable fact that there is little to 
show that the Greeks were in possession of 
the inner or spiritual truths of being. Had 
they been, they would have become Gods on 
earth, and it is only as yet that the occasional 
God appears as a Krishna, a Buddha or a 
Christ. And so the greater civilization yet 
awaits mankind when it shall have come into 
the unity of the faith unto a knowledge of a 
son of God, for *'he called them gods unto 
whom the word of God came," and the Scrip- 
ture can not be broken ; man is still on the 
way that leads from earth to heaven. In 
life's pathway the elemental savage with his 
dim light is trying to find his upward course, 
and all the way from the savage up is an in- 
numerable host of souls in various stages of 



36 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

growth and development, all pressing on- 
ward and upward, all seeking the life that is 
eternal. Some are now dying to their Adam- 
nature and awakening to the consciousness of 
the Christ; some are passing from death 
unto life and consciously becoming sons of 
God; some are leaving humanity behind 
and laying hold on divinity, but what one has 
attained all shall yet attain. ''If I be lifted 
up, I will draw all men unto me,'' says the 
Master. The law that uplifts one is the law 
that uplifts all. All have been of the earth, 
earthy; all must become of the heavens, 
heavenly. All die in the Adam; all shall 
live in the Christ. 



Chapter III 
Divine Energy in Motion 



DIVINE ENERGY IN MOTION 

Energy and motion manifest themselves 
In many ways and through many degrees, but 
there Is only one Infinite and Eternal Energy 
that Is both within and without all things and 
from which all things proceed. Every form 
is animated by Life; every form Is organ- 
ized by Intelligence; every form Is worked 
out to its full expression because of a definite 
purpose to reveal an Inner Plan. 

When scientific Investigators come to the 
ultimate of matter, or to the last and final 
analysis they are able to make, they are 
brought face to face, not with form, but 
with that which animates, controls, and di- 
rects all form — Energy, Motion. Therefore, 
the explanation of form lies, not In its action 
or re-action, but in all-pervading Life and a 
supreme Intelligence that lives both within 

39 



40 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

and without all forms, and which is the only 
Cause of each and every form that appears 
in the visible universe. 

No one can tell what this eternal energy is, 
nor what sets it in motion, but the same 
power-potency exists in the highly unfolded 
man and one may know of its workings and 
may enter into an understanding of the laws 
through which it works; may see, as did 
Tyndal, the power-potency made manifest in 
matter. The great Architect, the One Cre- 
ator, the Master-Mechanic gives of Himself, 
of His own Life, and of His own Intelligence 
to every form, so that the most minute thing 
IS as divine in its origin as a Krishna, a Bud- 
dha, or a Christ. Thus we see that all pro- 
ceed from One Source, that all grow by one 
Law from within, outward. 

Science starts with protoplasm as being the 
life-substance, the life-stuff from which all 
organic life proceeds, and that protoplasm, 
no matter from what source it seems to come, 
or whether one studies it in unit-cell as in an 
amoeba, in a vegetable organism, or in the 



DIVINE ENERGY IN MOTION 41 

body of man, is essentially uniform and simi- 
lar in appearance and properties. Protoplasm 
is evidently a highly complex substance, but it 
is not known whether it is a definite chemical 
body or whether it is a varying mixture of 
different chemical substances. In appearance 
It is a greyish, viscid, slimy, semi-transparent, 
semi-fluid substance. Its properties are exact- 
ly the same as those of all living things. It 
consists largely of_proteids which are com- 
pounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitro- 
gen, and sulfur associated with a large pro- 
portion of water. Besides proteids, proto- 
plasm contains a small proportion of mineral 
matter such as sulfates, phosphates of potas- 
sium, calcium, magnesium as well as sodium, 
iron, and phosphorus. The most obvious 
manifestation of life, the power that scientists 
call automatic movement, is possest by all 
living protoplasm. But back of automatic 
movement must be the germ of a Divine In- 
telligence. This word protoplasm is derived 
from the Greek protos (first) and Plasma 
(creation), which is, in turn, from Plassein 



42 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

(to form). Protoplasm is therefore called 
the first creative form, the first living sub- 
stance from which all other living forms pro- 
ceed, whether it be plant, animal, or man. 
Science affirms that protoplasm forms the 
basis of all life, no living form existing with- 
out it, and that all the phenomena or activ- 
ities of life are based on this fundamental sub- 
stance. But to find the real basis of life it- 
self we must go behind all form. For back 
of all evolution there must be an involution. 
Whichever way we turn we find the Intelli- 
gence, Order, Design, Plan. First the Plan 
— Involution; later the expression — evolu- 
tion. It makes not the slightest difference 
whether we consider the action of atoms or 
molecules in physics, the combinations of ele- 
ments in chemistry, or the protoplasmic cellu- 
lar activities of the units in organized life; 
going back of, and behind all these, and all 
other forms we find the ceaseless activity of 
Life and Intelligence. In the lowest and 
most elemental forms of life is contained po- 
tentially all that Is to come from the later 



DIVINE ENERGY IN MOTION 43 

stages of evolution. The unit-cell contains 
within itself, in its limited way, a degree of 
the One Divine Life and Intelligence of the 
whole universe. It makes no difference 
whether it be the cell of plant, of animal or 
of man, the essential thing is that each cell 
has its own work and its own life to live, 
and there is just as much life in one cell as 
in another. 

Science tells us tliat the only essential dif- 
ference between plant and animal is a physio- 
logical one, a difference in the method of 
nutrition. Green plants are able to live in- 
dependently of other organisms, and build up 
their substance from simple gases in the air, 
and Inorganic salts in soil or water, pro- 
vided that certain conditions of light and 
moisture are present In their environment; 
that a typical animal, on the other hand, while 
practically Independent of sunlight. Is not 
able to exist apart from other living organ- 
isms, can not build up Its body from simple 
chemical constituents, like the plant, but must 
be supplied with ready-made protelds In Its 



44 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

food, for which it requires other organisms, 
either plant or animal. 

There is a stage between these two fore- 
going conditions exemplified by the fungi 
among plants. In this method of nutrition, 
the organism can not build up its substance 
from inorganic substances, but absorbs or- 
ganic substances, present in solutions con- 
taining organic salts or decaying animal or 
vegetable matter. 

Such cases show clearly that in the simplest 
forms of life, the difference between plant 
and animal is but a difference of habit and 
mode of nutrition to which the organism is 
not, at first, irrevocably committed. Each 
cell assimilates food material, whether this is 
obtained by its own activity as In the major- 
ity of protozoa, or Is brought, as it were, to 
its door by the blood-stream as In the higher 
metazoa, and builds this food material into 
Its own substance, a process accompanied by 
respiration and excretion, and resulting in 
growth. Every cell exhibits in greater or 
less degree what science is pleased to call 



DIVINE ENERGY IN MOTION 45 

"irritability," or the power of responding to 
stimuli, and at some time in its life is capable 
of reproduction. In fact, we find in the cell 
everything that is to be found, at a later 
stage, in the most highly organized life. It 
is a question of degree of Life, not of kind; 
it is a question of degree of Intelligence, and 
not of kind. In the cell we note the be- 
ginning of the Divine Plan, the Design of 
the great Architect, we see Life and Intelli- 
gence written into it, and being made mani- 
fest through law and order. In this tiny life- 
germ we see how form lives and moves and 
has its being only because of animating Life 
and guiding Intelligence, and that, in its 
growth and development, there is just as 
much law and order in the simplest as in 
the most highly organized form on earth. 

On one memorable occasion said the Naza- 
rene: "Consider the lilies of the field, how 
they grow;" and when we come to consider 
any or every form, a beauty and order Is to 
be found In It, transcending anything or 
everything that the mind of man Is capable 



46 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

of producing. An infinity of variety, yet a 
unity or oneness of Life and Intelligence are 
ever being displayed and made manifest 
through diversity of form. We but blind 
our eyes when we fail to see, and belittle our 
minds when we fail to acknowledge the Su- 
preme Architect, who is ever working in and 
through all to will and to do. 

Each form and all forms are only symbols 
or outer expressions of inner ideals. No two 
symbols are ever alike; the snow-flakes, tho 
assuming definite forms and regular shapes 
with the six radii as hexagons, nevertheless 
never repeat, but constitute a separate and 
distinct beauty in and of themselves. In- 
deed, the Intelligence in even a crystal Is so 
great that, if it be removed from a solution 
or an atmosphere in which it is forming so 
that Its growth be interfered with and yet 
it be carefully preserved, it never loses Its 
power of resuming Its growth. It also pos- 
sesses the power of self-repair, and if it be 
deformed its subsequent growth Is abnormally 
rapid until perfection of form Is regained. 



DIVINE ENERGY IN MOTION 47 

Well might we say with the Psalmist of 
old: *'Day unto day uttereth speech, and 
night unto night showeth forth knowledge." 
The more we study nature, the more we shall 
be filled with belief in, and reverence for 
One Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omni- 
present Power which is not only the De- 
signer, but the Creator of all things. 

One might study protoplasm and its cellu- 
lar activities for a lifetime without exhausting 
the subject. The mind is filled with the won- 
der of it viewed simply from a materialistic 
standpoint, but when one is able to go behind 
the outer form and perceive the activities of 
the living Spirit, one is filled with a still 
greater wonder. 

When one realizes that the unit-cell forms 
not only the beginning but the ending of the 
whole body of man; that, while products 
other than the cell itself may enter into the 
composition of the body, nevertheless, these 
products all result from cellular activity; that 
the hair, nails, skeleton, etc., are all of them 
products formed by what science terms the 



48 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

metabolic activity of the living substance of 
the cells, and exist in intimate connection with 
it; that in addition to metabolic products of 
this kind, special modifications of the living 
substance itself are connected with specializa- 
tions; as it were, fulfilling a particular vital 
function. Such are the contractile substance 
of the muscular tissue and the various mech- 
anism seen in nervous tissue. 

It is necessary, therefore, in a living body 
of any kind, to distinguish clearly between 
what might be called the simple protoplasm 
and its differentiations, and products. In the 
first place a living organism of any kind 
whatsoever may be regarded as protoplasm. 
Secondly, substances or structures proceeding 
from protoplasm, are formed either by dif- 
ferentiation or modification of the protoplasm 
itself, or by excretory, or secretory activity of 
the living substance. 

The human body is built up of an immense 
number of cells, which produce singly or in 
cooperation, a variety of substances and struc- 
tures, each contributing to the functions of 



DIVINE ENERGY IN MOTION 49 

the body. The cell is the vital unit, and 
science tells us it Is in the unit that the ex- 
planation of vital phenomena must be sought, 
that it is to the cell that the study of every 
bodily function sooner or later drives us. In 
the muscle-cell lies the problem of the heart- 
beat, and that of muscular contraction. In 
the gland-cell lies the cause of secretion; in 
the epithelial-cell in the white blood-corpuscle 
lies the problem of the absorption of food, 
while the secrets of the mind are hidden in 
the ganglion-cell. So, also, the problems of 
inheritance and development, it is asserted, 
have shown themselves to be cell-problems, 
while the study of disease has produced a 
cellular pathology. To the scientist, then, 
the most important problems awaiting solu- 
tion in biology, are cell-problems. 

Some one has said that the cell theory 
ranks with the evolution theory In the far- 
reaching influence It has exerted on the 
growth of modern biology. The history of 
its development gives place In point of In- 
terest to no other general conception. 



50 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

In cell differentiation, both among unicellu- 
lar and multicellular individuals, the cell as- 
sumes the most varied forms and performs 
the most diverse functions. Cells arise only 
by the division of a preexisting cell. We 
know that the phenomena of assimilation, 
respiration, excretion, response, movement, 
and other characteristics of living things are 
but the coordinated expressions of the corre- 
sponding activities of the constituent cells ; 
so that science says we now know that the re- 
production of the organism is, in its ultimate 
analysis, a cell process; that our knowledge 
of the essential fact that cells arise only by 
the 'division of preexisting cells is now a 
fundamental fact; that the cells are the unit 
of organic structure, and that there Is a recip- 
rocal action between cells which may be 
called a division of their labors. 

Admitting the foregoing scientific explana- 
tions as true, yet are we any nearer the prob- 
lem of life than we were before? From the 
scientist we receive no explanation concerning 
the Life and Intelligence which animate the 



DIVINE ENERGY IN MOTION 51 

protoplasm. About whence it comes and 
whither It goes, the scientist is singularly 
silent; and we now hear, perhaps, less about 
spontaneous generation of life, and the star- 
dust theory than we have heard in the past. 
Evolution was at one time expected to ex- 
plain all the mysteries of life, and yet evolu- 
tion in no way touches upon Life itself, but 
only upon the forms which Life and its In- 
telligence are ceaselessly creating. The very 
word evolution meaning, as it does, to "evo- 
lute," or to turn out, is an unfortunate word 
for the materialists who seek to explain all 
Life through or by material form, drawing 
deduction from expressions and manifesta- 
tions, and thereby trying to explain the primal 
Force, the original Cause. However, they 
not only fail to recognize the primal Cause, 
working in and through all forms, but when 
forced, by reason and logic, to leave the 
realm of the visible, they set that reason and 
logic aside and stubbornly deny the existence 
of the first great Cause that they are trying 
to explain. It looks as if they were fearful 



Sa SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

that they might have entirely to change or 
at least to reconstruct their theories concern- 
ing Life, because, if some of the theories held 
to by Sir Oliver Lodge and others of our 
most advanced and advancing scientists be 
true, then the old foundations slip away, to 
be replaced by the newer and better ones 
upon which the temple of scientific truth will 
surely be erected. 

It may be that in protoplasm is observed 
the first working of Life and its Intelligence 
in the construction of forms, but when the 
scientist deals with the cell, he Is dealing just 
as much with the form, even if it be one of 
the most minute forms, as when he deals with 
larger bodies; and the form must always be 
something less than the Life and the Intelli- 
gence which create the form. 

The Energy In motion in the cell Is not 
the form, Is not even visible, except by its ac- 
tion on the protoplasm. The tiny electron, 
the Invisible atom, the unit-cell, the earth, the 
sun, and all the systems of suns and worlds 
throughout the universe are all acted upon 



DIVINE ENERGY IN MOTION 53 

and respond to eternal Energy and Motion. 
There Is an underlying Life which molds 
everything into a thing of beauty, a Life, 
too, that lives and works and feels and thinks 
in man, a universal Life that man may come 
to know and understand, as the Spirit within 
him becomes conscious of its oneness with the 
Spirit of all things. This tells him that he is 
one with Universal Life; that he is one 
with Universal Intelligence: "Speak to him, 
thou, for he hears, and Spirit with Spirit can 
meet. Closer is he than breathing, nearer 
than hands and feet." 

This Life and Intelligence is not in any 
way to be personified. It is not limited or 
enclosed In form, but Interpenetrates all 
forms; It Is both within and without; in 
fact, we might call the great whole universe 
the personification of this Infinite and eternal 
Power, only that the whole physical universe 
Is less than the Cause which produces it. 
There Is no limitation to be placed on this 
universal Power. It Is Omnipotent, Omnis- 
cient, Omnipresent, Immanent — a God who 



54 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

lives In everything from the electron to the 
universe ; a God who works through law and 
order, a Life and Intelligence that are One 
and yet work through Infinity of design, so 
that each thing expresses Itself after Its kind, 
and Its own kind only ; a God that Is written 
Into the Plan In the acorn, so that through 
the evolution of the Plan, In the expression 
of purpose according to design, It will eventu- 
ally appear the oak; a Life that moves at 
the heart of the seed to make It expand and 
push Its way from under the resisting earth 
In Its desire to fulfil Its purpose and manifest 
Itself In a greater and more wonderful Plan. 
Law and order reign In Its growth from first 
to last. From the acorn to the oak there Is 
an orderly procession of change going on. 
Everything that comes Into being In the great 
universe contains within It the Divine Plan, 
and the divine Law and Order for the work- 
ing out of that Plan, a Plan which eventually 
evolves and manifests the Love, and Wis- 
dom, and Law of a divine Creator. 

We accept, then, the ultimate one sub- 



DIVINE ENERGY IN MOTION 55 

stance or mass of modern science, not as be- 
ing something separate or apart from Life, 
nor as something to be denied away, but 
from Its densest forms up to its most ethereal 
manifestation, electricity, as something to be 
regarded as the embodiment of the Living, 
Intelligent Life, which moves, directs, and 
controls the whole vast universe. 

There Is oneness of Life; there Is oneness 
of Intelligence; but there Is diversity of 
form, diversity of expression. Variety Is 
found throughout the universe. It Is illus- 
trated in thousands of forms and degrees — 
an infinity of expression, but all proceeding 
from one Source, all taking form according 
to one Law. The so-called physical universe 
Is God's outer Word, Is the manifestation of 
the Universal Spirit, but the outer manifesta- 
tion can be truly understood only as the 
Spirit within man comes In touch. In close 
communion with the Universal Spirit. There 
is something within the life of man transcend- 
ing thought, speech, and action, something 
that Is eternal — the Presence of the living 



56 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

God; and the consciousness of this Presence 
brings with It the assurance of eternal Life, 
that the one lives in the Whole, and that the 
Whole lives in the one; so that the enlight- 
ened man can say, with the Nazarene: "I in 
them, and thou in me, that they may be 
made perfect in one." 

Man, then, is something more than an ag- 
gregation of unit-cells. Each cell has its 
work to perform, each cell is possest of life 
and intelligence, but the sum of all cellular 
activity never created the mind or the soul of 
man. His life and intelligence come from 
out the invisible. His soul is greater than 
any form, is greater than all forms, because 
forms are only symbols or expressions of 
Living Power, and his soul is living power, 
God manifesting His own Life and His own 
Intelligence, and the body of man, being only 
•an expression of this divine manifestation. 
Because of the Presence of God in man's 
own life, it may be said that man is God's 
highest instrument on this earth to express 
the divine Plan, the divine Will, in the crea- 



DIVINE ENERGY IN MOTION 57 

tion of a new and a better earth, a better 
world to live in ; and that, as man comes into 
the consciousness of his God-like nature, he 
win be able to do still greater things than 
anything he has done In the past. He will 
continue on In his upward journey until he 
has made all things subject to him. Little 
by little the divine Plan of his life will be 
disclosed to him and with such disclosure 
there will come the conscious effort for su- 
premacy, for dominion and power over all 
things. He will cease to be a slave to ex- 
ternal things. He will have overcome the 
world and the things of the world, and, be- 
cause of this overcoming, he will enter Into 
an Inheritance, not only of freedom from sin 
and disease, but of final victory over death, 
whereby he will Inhabit a body or a temple 
as imperishable as his soul. 



Chapter IV 
The Coming Race 



THE COMING RACE 

Comparatively few men or women have 
any true conception of the latent or poten- 
tial powers and possibilities within them. If 
they had such realizing sense, the world 
would take a stride in its evolution far sur- 
passing anything that has ever occurred in 
the past. A retrospective view of the nine- 
teenth century would show that, in nearly 
every department of life, much more was ac- 
complished in the last hundred years, than 
for many hundreds of years previously, and 
consequently, since we are progressing faster 
than ever, the next hundred years should pro- 
duce greater developments than in all the ac- 
cumulated past. We are now only in the 
springtime of a new cycle of development, a 
development which will concern itself with 
man's inner life, that is to say with the un- 

61 



62 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

folding of his mental, psychic, and spiritual 
powers. It may well be that the next hun- 
dred years of human progress will show man 
as victor over disease and pain, show him 
as master of his own physical organism. 
Crime, and punishment for crime, will be 
things of the past, and poverty should be un- 
known. Even now the civilized world Is 
making history at a pace never before known. 
Consider the many changes making for 
greater freedom of the race that have taken 
place In a comparatively few months' time. 
In countries like China, Russia, Turkey, Per- 
sia, and Portugal. To have predicted such 
changes would have been considered prepos- 
terous even a few years ago. Unrest pre- 
vails the world over, and no one can tell 
what a day or a week may bring forth. 

In the economic world England seems to 
be In the van, and an effort is being put forth 
to ameliorate the conditions of the working 
classes, such as perhaps no other large coun- 
try has undertaken to the same degree. There 
are many signs that other countries are awak- 



THE COMING RACE 63 

ening to a new life, for unrest and disorder 
often foreshadow a new order of things. It 
does not, however, necessarily follow that 
such changes should come through revolution 
as In the past, but rather they should come 
through conscious knowledge of the action 
of eternal law, and conscious cooperation on 
the part of Individuals who are now able to 
perceive the action of such law. Ideals rule 
the world; Ideals are more powerful by far 
than any physical revolution. The great 
changes that will take place In the years to 
come will result from ^^ living ideals/' I mean 
ideals that are lived by people on this earth, 
forming an influence that will be mightier 
than the sword. To some It might seem that 
the time was short, but thousands of wonder- 
ful things that few men have dreamed of as 
yet will take place in the next century of 
time. Our grandfathers could not have even 
dreamed of the things that have taken place 
in the last fifty years. 

The world of religion, philosophy, and 
science is as yet In Its Infancy, and, tho grant- 



64 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Ing that much has been accomplished, there 
IS yet an Infinity of things to do and things 
to become. We are now only In the first 
process of becoming, of doing. Why is all 
this going to take place? Simply because 
man Is only now awakening to a knowledge 
of his power and possibilities. He Is coming 
into conscious realization of what, hereto- 
fore, he was able to perceive in only a dim, 
uncertain way. 

In the past, anticipations of a future life 
In a heaven to come, caused him to think of 
this earth as a vale of sorrows and tears. 
Now he Is coming to know that he makes his 
own heaven or his own hell, and that both 
his heaven and his hell are states of con- 
sciousness causing him to be related to his 
environment either In a strong, harmonious 
way, or In a weak, discordant one. His mind 
was so divided In the past between God and 
the devil, between life and death, between 
righteousness and sin, between health and dis- 
ease, that at one time he was thinking and 
acting something of his God-life, and at an- 



THE COMING RACE 65 

other time something of the life of his "devil." 
He seemed to himself to be dual in his nature 
— part good and part evil, part God and 
part devil — torn by conflicting desires and 
emotions, at times expressing health, at times 
expressing disease, at times his mind being 
buoyed up by faith and hope, at times cast 
down by doubt and fear, and the battle be- 
tween the two ever unceasingly going on. 
The New Way shows him that God and 
his creation is all, that each thing and each 
person is a part of a Universal Whole, that 
as each part is related harmoniously to the 
whole, through and by the consciousness that 
is within it, it becomes at-one or in harmony 
with the whole. This is the law of the 
Spirit of Life. This is the knowledge which 
frees us from Sin and Death. We are one 
with all power. Power has been given to 
overcome, and to him that overcometh, comes 
conscious oneness with God. "He that over- 
cometh shall inherit all things; . . . . 
and I will be his God, and he shall be my 
son." Man realizes the necessity for a heaven 



66 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

and he is now consciously beginning the 
building and the establishing of it on earth. 
In Genesis we are told of a past when 
there were giants on earth, but the greater 
giants are yet to come. The world has had 
the occasional giant: the Krishna, the Bud- 
dha, the Christ, in the spiritual realization ; the 
Raphael, the Michaelangelo, and the Millet, 
in the realm of Art; the Beethoven, the 
Mozart, and the Wagner, in Music; the 
Shakespeare, the Dante, the Goethe, in let- 
ters; the Galileo, the Newton, the Herschel, 
in Astronomy. We might go on enumerating 
the giants of other days, but the world will 
yet know a race of giants to come who shall 
think of themselves — as only a very few of 
the giants of the past have done — as sons of 
God — having power on earth — ^knowledge to 
understand the Universal Will and power to 
use it — living representatives of God on 
earth. It is only the man who thinks of 
himself as being divine in origin that is going 
to be able to measure up to the stature of a 
perfect man. 



THE COMING RACE 67 

The prophets — the giants of old — came 
when the world was as yet enveloped in dark- 
ness ; their light shone upon a darkness which 
could neither see nor appreciate the light, yet, 
through all the ages, man has been struggling 
and reaching out for the light, and now the 
morning is at hand, and there is coming not 
only an appreciation of all that was good and 
true in the past, but an intense longing to 
enter into the deeper knowledge of the ever- 
lasting presence. Desire is the keynote of 
knowledge. When people hunger and thirst, 
they shall be filled. Externals no longer 
satisfy. The real science of life has to do 
with living souls, not external forms. If 
man epitomizes all of life, then man becomes 
the greatest study of all. A study of self is 
going to unlock every mystery, and bring into 
use all latent power. "He called them gods, 
unto whom the word of God came." The 
inner word is in every life; when we seek 
for it the revelation of it comes to mind. 
Through such revelation man's outer life, 
mental and physical, becomes perfected. The 



68 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

whole man, the complete man appears — not 
that which Is partial, but that which Is whole 
and complete. This, and this alone, fulfils 
the requirement of God's law, a law that 
calls for perfection In everything, from the 
tiniest atom to the greatest sun. 

Out of the fulness of knowledge and 
power man will give to his world, so that the 
desert shall bloom as the rose; new fruits 
and new flowers and everything necessary to 
man's outer life will the earth give back to 
man — a mutual giving, a mutual receiving. 
All nature will mirror forth the perfection, 
the wonder and the beauty of man's Inner 
life. If our eyes were not closed, If our 
ears were not dulled, we should already see 
the evidence on every side of the dawning of 
a new day. To-day we stand between the 
dead, dark past and the bright, living future. 
We are holding to the past only through the 
action of our own subconscious minds, where- 
in we have written all we have ever lived, all 
we have ever seen or done, all that we have 
ever felt or thought. And the battle is not 



THE COMING RACE 69 

between principalities and powers, but is an 
effort on the part of the conscious mind to 
assert itself, to over- rule all of the unreal or 
partial things which come trooping up from 
the subconscious mind of the past. 

Let us know that the subconscious mind Is 
man's book of Life; that in the earlier stages 
of his evolution, his understanding being lim- 
ited, he was able to perceive in only an In- 
complete and partial way. He was ruled, 
in a marked degree, by his sense-nature. 
Thought and reason played only a minor part 
in his life; and even later, when he had come 
to think and reason on life and Its varied 
problems, he was still dominated by his ex- 
ternal world ; circumstances controlled his ac- 
tions; there was no real adjustment to en- 
vironment, there was constant warfare going 
on between his desires and habits of the past 
and the new desires wherewith he was trying 
to establish new habits. All the past had 
been necessary; each step taken on the way 
of Life from the elemental man up, was a 
step as needful to the development of life as 



•rO SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

any step to come. But we must remember 
that from first to last it is a question of con- 
sciousness; in its early stages the new con- 
sciousness was not able to perceive that the 
old consciousness had been good in its place, 
but looked upon it rather as a thing of evil 
instead of as a necessary stage in growth; 
and so there was warring and clashing of 
interests between the old and the new. 

In a larger way we might look out on the 
world and see that the whole conflict going 
on between men is one of new thought and 
ideals. Old ways and means stand convicted 
in the light of new ideals. Man is ever 
dying to the old and living to the new. In 
the time to come there will be no clash or 
warfare as between the past and the present, 
as between the old and the new. The old 
ideal in the light of the newer thought will 
be clearly shown to the mind as something 
that, while necessary for a time, had to make 
way for the coming of the newer ideal. It 
will not enter into life as a disturbing factor, 
but as one presses stedfastly onward to the 



THE COMING RACE 71 

light, It will be left behind, to be seen or re- 
membered no more forever. 

But man. In his consciousness of the pres- 
ent time. Is engaged In a warfare between his 
conscious thought and feeling of the present 
and the subconscious life of the past. The 
true adjustment of the conscious to the sub- 
conscious has not yet taken place, and man Is 
engaged In much the same kind of a battle as 
Don Quixote, believing that he has real bat- 
tles to fight when they are all Imaginary and 
of his own making. Subconscious mind Is 
filled with doubts and fears; It Is filled with 
battles and defeats; It Is filled with ani- 
mosities and hate; it Is filled with selfishness 
and greed; It Is filled with disease and death. 
Every true thought and feeling that has 
registered Itself In the subconscious mind, 
lives in mind to overcome the unreal, to 
bring victory out of defeat, to bring joy out 
of sorrow, to bring health out of disease, to 
bring eternal life out of death. In the near 
future the time must come when real thoughts 
and feelings, living as subconscious realities. 



72 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

will outweigh all the unreal, all the imagi- 
nary, all the partial thoughts and feelings, 
when the subconscious, instead of giving back 
to the conscious mind its thoughts of good 
and evil, its partial or immature thoughts, 
will give back positive thoughts of life and 
action that will keep the mind from being 
divided in its service to masters, and make it 
single to a service of mental and physical up- 
building, for when the eye is single the whole 
body shall be filled with light. 

Some time we shall all come to know that 
every phase of life, whether we call it good 
or evil, has been an inner effort for outer ex- 
pression. Everything that we call good is 
really an uninterrupted flow of life and in- 
telligence from the center to the circumfer- 
ence of man's being. All that we call evil is 
this same life-energy that, in its outflow, 
meets with opposition. But every obstacle in 
life will be overcome, circumstances will be 
controlled, and apparently adverse environ- 
ments, through proper adjustment, made not 
only harmonious, but advantageous. In the 



THE COMING RACE 73 

New Way of Life, one must learn to appre- 
ciate work at its true value. We can not 
think ourselves into the Kingdom of God. 
The Kingdom of God is taken by violence; 
perhaps the word ^Violence" does not express 
the true meaning, but it certainly makes it 
plain that it does not come to us, that we 
must go to it and work for it, through a con- 
stant, persistent desire and effort. In fact, a 
never-ceasing effort must be made until the 
goal of our desire is attained. Power comes 
only through the use of power; increased 
intelligence only through the use of mind. 

When we think of the great universe in 
which we live, we realize that there is al- 
ways a ceaseless action, and an undying effort 
to express; for outer expression is ever a 
result of the action of invisible ideals that 
must of necessity take form on earth. Our 
inner lives, too, are part of the invisible 
forces, and our bodies are just as much parts 
of the visible universe as anything else in it, 
consequently we should give this expression 
not only our highest thought, but our best 



74 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

action; in other words, we should try to live 
our lives for all they are worth. We are just 
as necessary to the world as the world is to 
us. The progress attained through taking 
this course will show in an ever-increasing 
measure. A man should rejoice in the work 
of his own mind and hands — rejoice, because 
in the doing of that work he is giving a more 
complete expression of his own life; rejoice, 
because his work is going to benefit his fel- 
low-men. Work should always be filled with 
a sense of uplift and satisfaction. The man 
who shirks the work and the duties of life, 
destroys by so doing the very integrity of his 
own life. Every one should work to his full 
capacity. As we do this to-day, on the 
morrow we find our capacity increased to 
do greater and better work. It is not our 
work that makes us tired and devitalized, but 
rather the way in which we do it. If we 
allow our minds to become careless or 
thoughtless in our work, we dissipate the 
energy or vitality necessary for it, and we 
express in an imperfect way that which should 



THE COMING RACE 75 

have been a perfect production. We be- 
come weary, and the time drags; whereas, if 
our thoughts were thoroughly centered on 
what we are doing, then the time would pass 
quickly, and neither mind nor body would be 
wearied In the doing. 

Put the best thought Into everything you 
do. Put the best workmanship Into every ex- 
pression of your hands ; live up to your high- 
est prerogative and there will be an ever- 
Increasing gain as a reward for true thought 
and action. If one desires to attain real 
power In life, he must follow this course; if 
one desires real happiness, he will acquire It 
in this way. All things are ours, but we must 
lay hold on them and make them ours. 
Through work we are giving an equivalent 
for everything we receive. We enter Into the 
real possessions of life only as we pay the 
price. The law of reciprocity acts through- 
out all life — a mutual giving and receiving; 
according to what we give, so shall we re- 
ceive. The truly great man Is the one who 
gives from his soul love, faith, and hope, to 



76 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

brighten and uplift, to aid In calling out 
these same qualities in the lives of others; 
who gives of his mentality in strong, positive, 
creative thought; who images or realizes in 
mind what man and his world needs most, 
and then who goes to work to give outer ex- 
pression to his inner feelings, his thoughts, 
his ideals. Such a man becomes an inspira- 
tion to his fellow-man, making life not only 
better but easier for every one to live; and 
after he has passed away from this plane of 
action, his feelings, his thoughts, his ideals, 
all continue to live and grow in an unending 
way, constantly making for the betterment 
of mankind. The reason for this Is that he 
sets up in his own life an eternal vibration, 
or a vibration making for a consciousness of 
eternal life. When we come to understand 
the great law of vibration, we shall know 
that it Is possible for one who understands 
the laws of life, to set up a rate of vibra- 
tion, through his inmost feelings and his 
highest thought, which become etheric In its 
action, uniting with the great etheric vibra- 



THE COMING RACE 77 

tlons of the Universe and becoming one with 
them. Such vibrations Instead of growing 
less or dying out, as do atmospheric vibra- 
tions, draw added power, becoming more 
and more effective as the mind of the world 
becomes more sympathetically attuned to 
them. Influencing generation after generation, 
an ever-Increasing power for good. One 
who has lived In the spirit of love may, there- 
fore, be said to exert far greater Influence 
In the world, mentally and spiritually, than 
when here In physical form. 

Love Is the greatest vibratory force in the 
Universe ; faith and hope are radiations from 
the heart of love. He who lives In the 
spirit of love, lives in God, and God lives In 
him. He has entered Into, and become one 
with. Universal Life and Intelligence. He 
Is a high priest after the Order of Melchlse- 
dek, without beginning or ending of days, 
with power to lay down or take up his body 
at win. Unto this end must all come; unto 
this fulness must all attain, but each In his 
own order; each In the fulness of time, or 



78 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

better might I say, each In a conscious real- 
ization of his sonship to God. 

The Way of Life Is an ever-ascending one, 
one that reaches from earth to heaven, from 
humanity to divinity. All along the way 
from the lowest valley to the highest moun- 
tain peak, will be found life's wayfarers, but 
the one who stands on the mountain peak 
started life In the deepest valley, and the one 
who Is In the deepest valley shall yet ascend 
the mountain heights, for life Is ever on- 
ward and upward. From one height attained 
or realized, another discloses Itself, and so 
man goes from glory to glory In an cver- 
ascendlng spiral of being. 



Chapter V 
The Living Way 



THE LIVING WAY 

The days of dogmatic orthodox science, 
like those of dogmatic orthodox religion, are 
passing away. For, if law and order are 
found to prevail throughout the universe, 
then only as we are able to enter into a 
comprehensive knowledge and a full appre- 
ciation of law and to follow it throughout 
in all its orderly working, shall we ever be 
able to establish a religion, a philosophy, or 
a science founded and grounded on the eter- 
nal laws of life. On every hand is to be seen 
evidence of a change. Science, postulating 
Life and Intelligence in matter, has seen that 
which it terms matter disappear into that 
which it now calls modes of energy, points 
of force. Science is rapidly passing through 
matter; even the atomic theory of the uni- 
verse, with its invisible and indivisible atom, 
has been badly shaken. With the discovery 

81 



82 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

of radium and its properties, came the neces- 
sity for the reconstruction of many of the so- 
called scientific facts of the past. Fifty years 
ago, matter was more real to the scientific 
mind than all else, and around it might be 
said to revolve all the scientific facts of that 
period. But the advanced scientist of to-day 
has come to see that the further he gets away 
from material form, the nearer he approaches 
reality. He reaches his conclusions not by 
denying the existence of matter, but rather 
through a thorough appreciation of what the 
material stands for — seeing in it a form, a 
symbol, a manifestation of unseen energy and 
motion. Energy and motion to the scientist 
of to-day are greater realities than any object 
he can see with the eye, any sound he can 
hear with the ear, or any or all things he can 
touch, smell, or taste. In no way does he 
underrate the value of his physical senses In 
his quest after knowledge, but he has found 
that, if he would overcome limitations, it will 
be possible to do so only through taking 
higher ground, by moving a step upward 



THE LIVING WAY 83 

from the physical to the super-physical ; hence 
he found It necessary to enter a new domain 
If science should continue to bring to the 
world still greater light and knowledge. 

In the past the scientist has studied effects; 
he has studied one form In Its relation to 
other forms. His evolutionary theories con- 
cerning life have had very little to say of 
the animating Life or the directing Intelli- 
gence. Ideal, Plan were left out and a 
blind ''natural selection" was Introduced to 
take Its place. Evolution has told us Its story 
of the growth and the development of form 
in its ever-ascending scale from the ameba to 
man, and It has been a wonderful story, too; 
how each habitation has been built, how dif- 
ferentiations were constantly taking place, 
and how, with such differentiations, new and 
better adjustments to environment were being 
made, and that with the complexity of form 
came new adaptations to environment. But 
the story of evolution from first to last was 
simply one that had to do with forms — forms 
that reached from the unit-cell to the body 



84 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

of man. Evolution has shown us the rela- 
tion that each form bears to all the rest, but 
it has had absolutely nothing to tell us as to 
why animating Life and Intelligence lived in 
and directed the ameba; neither has it any- 
thing to say about that Divine Spark that 
lives as the animating Force and the direct- 
ing Intelligence in the life of man. 

The science of to-day, however, is meta- 
phorically reaching out and laying hold on 
the unseen. Henceforth it is going to con- 
cern itself as much with causes as in the past 
it has done with effects. The more ad- 
vanced scientific theories of the day are lead- 
ing us from the elemental diversity of forms 
to the universality of life, from chance to ^ 
order, from chaos to law. Thus the things 
of the Spirit are being discerned by the Spirit, 
and because of this new departure Science is 
living in an age of miracles, not miracles in 
the old sense that anything can transcend 
law or order, but in the new sense that every- 
thing must conform with law and order be- 
fore it can be worked out in an efficient or a 



THE LIVING WAY 85 

satisfactory way. Wireless telegraphy, wire- 
less telephony, aerial navigation, and count- 
less other new inventions only foreshadow, as 
it were, still greater things to come. The 
new science is merely in its infancy. What 
will the world have become when it shall 
have reached its manhood? The wildest 
dream, the most wonderful vision would be 
unable to give any adequate expression to all 
that awaits the development of a full-grown 
science. And yet what we call science is only 
one phase of the trinity of religion, philoso- 
phy, and science, each fulfilling its own pur- 
pose in its own way and by its own means — 
a trinity in outer expression but a real living 
unity at the center of being. 

Religion is the Spirit within man "feeling 
after" the Great Universal Spirit; a desire 
and a realization for oneness with God and 
man; at-one-ment between outer and inner. 

Philosophy is an effort on the part of the 
mind to give expression to what it conceives 
to be the laws which regulate, control, and 
direct life; and the final effort which we call 



86 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Science Is that this inner Spirit, this knowl- 
edge of law and order which comes later, 
shall find outer or visible expression in man's 
world. All three proceed from one source, 
by one law from inner to outer. 

To think, to feel and to act is the God- 
given prerogative of every man and through 
feeling, thought, and action comes all that is 
real or vital in life. To feel is first; to ex- 
press Is last; thought Is the connecting link. 

If we have a new science It follows that 
there must be a new philosophy behind such 
a science. In the past, we have had countless 
philosophies, and into every one of them has 
undoubtedly entered some element of truth, 
for It Is truth alone that can hold things to- 
gether. But the many philosophies have In- 
dicated that the truth In each one could, at 
best, have been only a partial truth. Only 
through the union of all the truth they con- 
tained with a still greater knowledge of the 
Inner Truth, could an enduring philosophy 
be established — a philosophy rising above 
conflicting, contending, and contradictory 



THE LIVING WAY 87 

theories, opinions, and beliefs; standing calm 
and serene in the realm of law and order 
where there is oneness of all Life and Intelli- 
gence, where everything is a part of the One 
and the One living in everything, where there 
is a countless diversity of form, but One 
Life pervading all. One Intelligence guiding 
and directing all. One Creator and one crea- 
tion. In this Plan is fulfilled the real object 
of true philosophy, which has ever been an 
attempt to establish *or bring law and order 
out of apparent chaos, unity out of apparent 
diversity, thereby establishing truth. 

The new philosopher, while accepting all 
that was real or vital in the philosophy of 
the past, is, nevertheless, leaving many cher- 
ished ideas and preconceived opinions behind ; 
he seeks only a knowledge of the truth, realiz- 
ing that it is only the truth that endures, the 
truth alone that makes for universal freedom 
and brings with it the eternal light, life, and 
wisdom. Behind the new philosophy there 
must be the impelling force of a new depar- 
ture in religion. All the truth that ever was 



88 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

in the religion of the past will remain, but 
all the dross must be destroyed. The purifi- 
cation is a necessary one in order that religion 
may become a vital reality in the life of man. 
The real religion of life is cutting loose from 
its ancient moorings, its hide-bound creeds, its 
dogmatic theologies; and all that miraculous 
element, which, heretofore, has played such a 
prominent part is being rapidly relegated to 
oblivion. The things once deemed sacred are 
sacred no longer; symbols that at one time 
exprest some degree of life are now dead, 
empty things. 

The so-called Christian theology, that at- 
tributed to its Founder miraculous powers 
and superhuman qualities because of its be- 
lief in His Divine or God-nature, will have to 
undergo a reconstruction in the light of the 
new religion — a message new to Christianity, 
but not new to its Founder — of the Kingdom 
of God, or a Kingdom of Heaven, resident 
in every soul. This new religion teaches that 
all men are sons of God, joint-heirs with 
Christ, that on the road leading from earth 



THE LIVING WAY 89 

to Heaven, some have gone but a little way, 
and some have almost reached the goal. 
Every soul, nevertheless, is a living embodi- 
ment of Universal Life and Intelligence; the 
Spirit of God Is potential even In the ele- 
mental savage, for he, too, in the fulness of 
time will express himself In perfected man- 
hood: the Image and likeness of God. 

That part of the work of the Nazarene 
which has been designated as miraculous, 
will, from the standpoint of the new re- 
ligion, philosophy, and science, come to be 
understood In Its true light, namely, that the 
Master was in possession of a knowledge of 
law and order transcending anything and 
everything that the world had known before. 
Because of this knowledge He was able to 
do what, to those about Him, seemed to be 
miraculous things, things that apparently set 
aside the laws of God. We are told, how- 
ever, that He was able to Impart His knowl- 
edge so that His works were duplicated In a 
marked degree by His disciples even to the 
raising of the dead; and, according to the 



90 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Master's own statement, greater things were 
yet to be done by those who should believe in 
His name and follow in His footsteps. 

In the new religion all that is miraculous 
will disappear, all that is useless will be done 
away with. Divine Love, Faith, and Hope 
will be its animating Source; wise thought 
and reason will direct its philosophy, and 
creative action will establish its true science. 

A question may arise on the part of the 
reader concerning the benefits to accrue to 
him from a belief in the foregoing statement. 
My answer is that whatever benefits and up- 
lifts the whole, must bring good to each and 
every part. Up to the present, in this chap- 
ter, I have been generalizing; from this point 
onward I shall try to specialize. 

Whatever befalls a nation affects, to a 
greater or a lesser degree, all the constituent 
parts of the nation, and the individual lives 
in a smaller way all that through which the 
nation passes. According to the individual's 
capacity to feel, to think, or to act, he lives 
the life of his country, either in a small or in 



THE LIVING WAY 91 

a great way, and what he feels, thinks, and 
does, helps to make the nation's history. The 
whole acts on the part; the part acts on the 
whole. The nation asks that each individual 
shall do his part in strengthening and main- 
taining and aiding it so that it may fulfil its 
real destiny among the other nations of the 
earth; and the nation offers in return to pre- 
serve the individual in all his lawful rights 
and privileges. 

If religion is to feel, philosophy is to 
think, and science is to express — and all this 
is necessary to the welfare of a nation or of 
the world, for that matter — for only in the 
measure as the individual begins to live what 
he has discovered, what he has been able to 
formulate in philosophy, what he knows how 
to express in science, has he begun to live 
life as it must be lived. Let it be known that 
the world's ideals have their beginnings first 
in the individual unit, so that everything be- 
gins first with the individual self, and moves 
from that individual self outward, and in this 
way affects the lives of all others. 



92 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

The enlightened mind is one that sees law 
and order in the whole Plan of Life, and 
because of such seeing regulates the life in a 
lawful, orderly way. No individual should 
ever wait to become inspired by national 
ideals or the ideals held by the whole people 
of the world he lives in; he should be in- 
spired by his own highest ideals. In this way 
he gives to the world and because of such 
individual giving the ideals of the nation or 
the world are constantly enlarging. 

Let the individual understand that his own 
health and strength, his own happiness and 
harmony can come only through his own 
rightly directed thought and effort. Perhaps 
some may think that the holding of ideals 
and the performance of those ideals by the 
multitude will redeem the individual, regard- 
less of the fact as to whether any effort is 
put forth on his own part or not. No, the 
individual who is in wrong relation with or 
who fails to adjust himself to the ideals of 
others, in the light of those ideals which, to 
a degree, he is able to perceive but is not liv- 



THE LIVING WAY 93 

ing, has only brought upon himself judgment 
and condemnation, and freedom from such 
judgment and condemnation can come only 
through an effort on his own part to establish 
a new adjustment. He must learn to feel, 
to think, and to act for himself. In the true 
shaping of his own life he must become ani- 
mated by the spirit of religion; he must be 
philosophic In his thought, and scientific In 
his action. When individual life Is Illumi- 
nated by Love and Faith, and is directed by 
thought and reason, then Its outer expression 
becomes a true and scientific demonstration 
of the Laws of Life. 

But, says one, I can think, and reason, and 
give expression to my thought and reason, 
but how am I to be taught to feel? I know 
that there Is such a condition as feeling, but 
It Is all so partial, so Incomplete: what am I 
to do In order to have It in greater fulness? 
Desire Is the first great essential — desire for 
more faith, more love, and more hope. De- 
sire Is the magnet which will attract these 
things to you, or, rather, should I say, call 



94 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

them from the inner Into the outer life. All 
the faith, hope, and love one needs are po- 
tential in one's inner consciousness of life. 

One can waken to this higher consciousness 
if the whole mind is bent upon such awaken- 
ing. Besides desire, there are many little 
things that one can do to aid in calling out 
in a conscious way the higher feelings. The 
kind word, the pleasant look, the generous 
act, the bright, hopeful way of always trying 
to see the best in everybody and in every- 
thing, are all little steps that one can be con- 
stantly taking to the greater end. At times, 
we are so wrapt up In the desire for material 
things that desire for the inner consciousness 
Is nearly If not quite forgotten. 

Occasionally we need to close our eyes, our 
ears, and even our thoughts to all the exter- 
nal world, and when we are able to do this, 
little by little, a new consciousness will steal 
into our outer lives, a new joy and a new 
peace, a new faith and a new love, and our 
whole outer expression will become renewed 
and transformed. 



THE LIVING WAY 95 

Perhaps we have grown tired of the world 
and Its forms, but when we come back to it 
with this new consciousness we find every- 
thing in it is changed, or at least our rela- 
tion to It is changed. We find a new bright- 
ness, a new beauty; the sun is shining and all 
the clouds have been dispelled. A vital re- 
ligion wherein love, faith, and hope are the 
fundamental elements. Is ever tending to 
the making of all things new. 

No matter how great the effort, no matter 
how long the time; the person who seeks to 
come into the consciousness of Inner feeling, 
will be more than rewarded for all the effort 
and time spent in acquiring a living religion. 
This religion will become an ever-Increasing 
factor in the life, if the Individual who has 
acquired it will. In order to keep his realiza- 
tion, endeavor to Impart his knowledge as 
freely as he has received It, for in doing this 
he confirms his own beliefs, and through 
clear, conscious thinking and fitly chosen 
words he Is able to Inspire in others the faith 
that is in him. If he can demonstrate to 



96 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

others that he is a happier and healthier man, 
and that life is filled with a new joy and a 
new purpose, he may awaken in other minds 
a desire to reach the same state. He should 
seek to make his philosophy of life as simple, 
concise, and beautiful as it is possible for 
him to do. He should remember that it is 
not desirable for him to argue any one into 
the Kingdom of God, that argument creates 
only friction and seldom, if ever, results in 
good. Indeed, argument has too often the 
nature of compulsion in it, since it seeks to 
make others believe as we do. No one should 
ever try to make another do anything, even 
if he thinks that the doing of it will prove 
for the other's good. People should always 
be left free to reject or accept as they them- 
selves think wisest and best. Often in one's 
desire to have others reap something of the 
benefits one has oneself received, one will 
urge upon others the necessity of following a 
given course. But it may be that the time 
has not yet arrived for them to receive, and 
hence urging it upon them will, perhaps, only 



THE LIVING WAY 97 

retard instead of helping them to greater 
knowledge. We would not think of thrust- 
ing a material gift upon some one who ob- 
jected to receiving it, neither should we thrust 
upon people spiritual or mental gifts when 
there is no desire on their part to receive 
them. It should be known that only those 
who seek, find ; that only to them who knock, 
shall the door be opened. Aid the seeker in 
every possible way. Open, in as far as you 
can, the door to the person who knocks, but 
never use the compulsion of argument to 
force any one else into your own way of 
thinking, feeling, or doing, because such a 
course is neither a lawful nor an orderly one, 
and for that reason it must fail in accomplish- 
ing the desired end and purpose. 

Give, and give constantly, but give wisely, 
give righteously. Give with the thought of 
supplying a need that is fully realized on the 
part of the person to whom you are giving, 
and in so doing you will retain your own 
freedom and integrity of thought and action. 
The religious feeling and the philosophic 



98 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

thought of an individuars life must, of neces- 
sity, express itself in positive action, in thor- 
oughly scientific demonstration. Whatsoever 
one's hands find to do should be done with 
one's might, not in a strained or a tense way, 
but with that might which comes from con- 
centration of thought, perseverance of action, 
and strength of purpose. Then each thing is 
done in the best possible way, and there is al- 
ways a joy in the doing of it. When any 
one is in love with his work, that work will 
receive the fullest attention and will be a true 
expression of himself, for the inner truth is 
always made manifest in outer action. 

But can we affirm a knowledge of inner 
truth if there is only an imperfect or partial 
expression? Expression, remember, is the 
scientific end of life; it is the outer demon- 
stration of the inner fact. In the true move- 
ment of life's forces from center to circum- 
ference we should find perfection of expres- 
sion just as much as we should find perfec- 
tion of motive or impulse. After all, what 
we do shows what we are; we must measure 



THE LIVING WAY 99 

up life in its last analysis by deeds. Faith 
that is not evidenced in works is not a living 
but a dead faith; and so the truly religious 
and philosophic mind expresses itself in ac- 
tion. The greatest world-prophets, like a 
Buddha or a Christ, were constantly giving 
of themselves, were constantly engaged in 
their work and all their outer words and acts 
were true expressions of their inner lives; 
they summed up within themselves the real 
religion, philosophy, and science of living. 
To become the living exponent of a great ex- 
ample is the only test of the influence of that 
example upon us. If a person wants to be- 
come a Christian, he will, first of all, have 
to imbibe the thoughts and the ideals of the 
Founder of Christianity; but that will not be 
sufficient. He must then begin to live those 
thoughts and ideals and so he will become a 
true follower of the Nazarene; not a camp- 
follower who is continually looking for all he 
can receive, who is seeking his own selfish 
ends and purposes, who is trying to save his 
own life at the expense of others ; but a true 



100 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

follower in the sense that he is constantly 
giving; that in his loving thought for the 
welfare of others, his mind is centered on 
what he shall be best able to give, rather than 
on the thought of any personal gain. From 
the world's point of view he is losing his 
life; from the Christ's point of view he is 
finding it. He is giving to those who ask 
and from those who would borrow of him he 
is not turning away. 

Such a man will find in the course of time 
that he is building his own life into a thing 
of beauty; that his every thought and action 
tends to the strengthening and perfecting of 
a fit temple for the habitation of God, a 
temple wherein all parts fitly united an(J 
joined together become a true expression in 
outer form of the in-dwelling Presence. The 
living Word becomes flesh and takes on a 
beauty of form in the world. The Kingdom 
of God which was first a state of conscious- 
ness becomes revealed on earth. 

The new religion, philosophy, and science 
await all who are ready to realize them. No 



THE LIVING WAY 101 

one can do this for another ; each must know 
for himself. Into each life has been written 
the Plan. The Plan existed before anything 
and everything else. It was the Word, the 
Logos which was with God in the beginning. 
This Word is the Divine Ideal — God's own 
thought of Himself. The Plan carries within 
itself its own full and perfect expression. 
Each soul is in full possession of the Plan. 
Each soul has the necessary light wherewith 
to see the Plan. Each soul has the necessary 
wisdom wherewith to give expression to the 
Plan. Each soul works out its own Plan in 
accordance with Divine Law and Order. 
There is the inner pressure of the Spirit de- 
manding full and complete expression. There 
is also the pressure of the outer world upon 
man's life, and it is because of this pressure 
from within and this pressure from without 
that the necessary conditions for growth and 
development take place In the life. 

No one should ever pray to be delivered 
from inner or outer pressure, but everyone 
should desire that his mind become so en- 



102 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

lightened from within that it should have 
power to adjust Itself harmoniously to all 
pressure that comes from without, so that the 
Ideal conditions may exist for the perfect de- 
velopment of the whole life. Man is a co- 
worker with God. When he Is working in 
perfect harmony with the laws of life, he Is 
engaged not only in developing the full 
strength and perfection of his own life but 
In making a better world; he Is working 
hand In hand with God; he Is using Divine 
Life and Intelligence; he Is at one with 
Omniscience and Omnipotence. 

Under such conditions the old heavens and 
the old earth are passing away. The new 
heavenly consciousness is coming into being, 
and the new earth is becoming actualized as 
fittingly expressing the Divine Ideal so that 
the desert shall blossom as the rose, and 
righteousness shall cover the earth. Once let 
it be clearly understood that each person has 
his part to perform in this work of creation, 
and the true science of Life becomes firmly 
established. 



Chapter VI 
Scientific Living 



SCIENTIFIC LIVING 

True science Is an outer demonstration of 
some Inner fact, or Idea, so that the outer 
may be said to be the correspondence or the 
expression of the Inner. But, In all scientific 
demonstration, the scientist realizes that he 
has to conform in his outer works to Inner 
laws, and. If he set law at defiance, he Is not 
going to accomplish anything In a satisfac- 
tory way. Law and order must always be 
complied with, when one proposes to deal In 
a scientific way with anything In the natural 
world. The domain of science Is not a 
limited one, because Inner truths exist for 
man In order that he shall demonstrate them 
in an outer way; so that real science has a 
boundless field for Investigation. That field 
Is limited only by the limitations that man 
places upon it, and, as time goes on, such 

limitations must become less and less, be- 

105 



106 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

cause, with each new discovery, a greater 
field of investigation will be opened up. 
Science is very much like life; it is without 
beginning or ending. It can be made to ap- 
ply to everything in this world. The whole 
universe, at the behest of science, is made to 
render up its secrets. Science may be said to 
be the knowledge of Nature's way of doing 
things, and Nature's way is always the lawful 
and orderly way, so that, in the following 
out of this coursfe, there must come results 
as natural and as orderly as the causes that 
brought them into being; therefore, scien- 
tific methods should always be employed in 
all departments of life. 

Real religion and true philosophy will, 
eventually, become scientific, because religion 
and philosophy are both capable of being 
demonstrated in a thoroughly satisfactory 
outer way. The inner is not separate or de- 
tached from the outer; the inner is the cause, 
and the outer is the effect. Causes and effects 
go together; but man must have some appre- 
ciation of causes before he can reap any true 



SCIENTIFIC LIVING 107 

understanding of outer effects; therefore, it 
is of vital importance that the laws of life 
should be understood, so that, in whatever 
we take up, all our efforts may become right- 
ly directed; that we may learn to live life in 
a truly scientific way, reaching definite results 
through the application of definite knowl- 
edge. We all know how necessary it is that 
our bodies should be whole and strong, for 
the accomplishment of our work, whatever 
it may be, In the best possible way, and yet, 
we do not bring any real science to bear In 
keeping them well, or in restoring them to 
health, after they have become diseased. 

Let us look at this question of the body 
from a scientific standpoint. Supposing the 
position of the materialist to be true, that 
mind or soul is a product of matter, then the 
body, of which mind and soul is considered 
an emanation, would best be kept well by 
purely material means, and the body could 
best select such means through what is called, 
by some, the law of natural selection. Why 
should not natural selection apply, just the 



108 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

same, in the physical life of man, as It does 
in the physical life of animals and plants? 
And the animals and plants succeed best 
under free, natural conditions. If man Is a 
purely physical being, why should he regulate 
his life through mental laws? Why should 
he regulate his life by religious or philosophic 
thought, or have any system of law of his 
own making? Why not go to the source, 
the physical world, for everything? If all 
begins in matter and ends in matter, religion, 
philosophy and all law that is not of a physi- 
cal order or to be found in the physical, 
will profit man nothing. But, If man be- 
lieves his soul and mind to be greater than 
his physical body, then the greater should 
dominate the lesser. If the body Is an ex- 
pression of soul and mind, then the real 
causes are not physical, but some power that 
transcends the physical. If these causes have 
bullded these bodies of ours, then why not 
look to the causes to renew and restore the 
body? Why should the struggle be kept go- 
ing on as tho there were two sets of causes. 



SCIENTIFIC LIVING 109 

one physical and one spiritual? To be con- 
sistent, one may be a materialist and live his 
materialism to the full, but, if one believes 
that it is not the seen but the unseen that is 
all-powerful, if one believes in man's spiritual 
and mental nature, then let that be lived to 
the full, also; let that nature be used to 
regulate man's life, both as regards the inner 
and the outer. Live in a thoroughly scien- 
tific way. Know that like causes must pro- 
duce like effects. Know that causes are un- 
seen, and that effects are but expressions of 
unseen causes. 

Supposing we take, for our basis, life as 
being spiritual, and not material, intelligence 
as being of mind and not of matter, and see 
if it is not possible for us to live in a scien- 
tific way, instead of living, as we do at the 
present, attributing some causes to mind and 
other causes to matter. Causation may come 
from one, but not from both. We are living 
in a universe that is governed by unseen laws. 
Why should we seek to introduce discord into 
this universe, by making one set of laws 



110 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

apply to the physical and the other to the 
spiritual? The universe is governed by laws 
that are either spiritual or physical, but not 
both; and, to Introduce the two, is only to 
create confusion. Let the people who believe 
that life, from first to last. Is purely physical, 
live this life in a purely physical way. Why 
should they waste their time over philosophy 
or religion, which, after all, are only products 
of the earth? But the people who believe 
in a God who Is the Creator of all things, 
should turn to a study of that Creator's laws 
and apply those laws to their living, so that 
the outer life may become a demonstration 
of the application of the spiritual law. 

Let us, then, use scientific methods in our 
lives just as we use them In more external 
things. Let us make a real study of life and 
Its requirements, and see If it Is not possible 
to overcome weakness with strength; to over- 
come disease with health; to overcome all 
abnormal conditions in life with normal ones. 
All the overcoming is to be done within our 
own conscious self, the self that has in the 



SCIENTIFIC LIVING 111 

past believed in a dual nature, a nature that 
believed in the reality of evil as much as an- 
other phase of the same nature did in the 
reality of good. This nature is a product of 
man's belief in physical and spiritual laws. It 
is the result of his making the physical uni- 
verse as real as the spiritual, so that he 
separates the one from the other. If he 
could realize that all outer expression is the 
result of spiritual law; that the real duality 
is cause and effect; that the universe is both 
inner and outer; inner force in motion, outer 
form as expression; and that form comes 
into being solely because of the inner energy 
in motion; then with such knowledge, man 
would seek to regulate his life in accordance 
with spiritual law, and the evil he now looks 
upon as real would become non-existent. He 
would see in the action of spiritual law the 
tendency from that which is little to that 
which is great, from that which is partial 
and undeveloped to that which is whole and 
complete. There would not be two sets of 
warring and jarring forces at work in the 



112 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

universe. Unity would prevail. Universal 
law and order would be supreme. There 
would be oneness of life and mind, expressing 
itself through a multiplicity of forms. 

From this viewpoint it would become easy 
for man to regulate his life and bring it into 
harmony with divine Law and Order, because 
first of all, knowing that there is but the one 
Mind in the universe, and that one Mind 
was both immanent and transcendent, a 
power working within and without, he would 
recognize this power working within his own 
life, and would thus come into possession of 
a consciousness which would be at once uni- 
versal and individual — universal, in that it 
was drawn from the one Source of all con- 
sciousness, and individual, because of the use 
the individual could put such a consciousness 
to. In origin it is divine, limitless; in ex- 
pression, human, and limited to the degree of 
man's receptivity of the divine Ideal. The 
question of degree would be one of develop- 
ment; the elemental man would be as divine 
as the highly developed spiritual man, but 



SCIENTIFIC LIVING 113 

his degree of receptivity would be condi- 
tioned by the plane he was living on, in 
other words, would be limited to that which 
seemed at first to be purely physical. But all, 
no matter what their degree of development 
might be, would be consciously responding to 
divine Law in so far as they were able to 
perceive it and understand it aright. 

What the world needs to-day is a new 
consciousness, a consciousness of a God that 
is in all, through all, and above all; a con- 
sciousness of a God working within all life, 
through all form to will and to do, a God 
caring alike for the strong and the weak, for 
the rich and the poor, the developed and 
the undeveloped, for the saint and the sinner, 
for one nation as much as for another, a 
God who is not to be worshiped through the 
observance of creed or form, but rather 
through the observance of His laws and Im- 
plicit obedience to them. 

The "unity of the faith" will come only 
when the spiritual Is made the basis for all 
religion. Because of the diversity of forms 



114i SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

in the outer world, any number of religions 
can be promulgated; because of the diversity 
of thought in its relation to external things 
innumerable creeds may be devised, but if the 
fact is once recognized that all Spirit, all 
Life, all Intelligence is one and that it is only 
through the Spirit in man that he can come 
in real communication with the all-pervading 
Spirit, then man's religion would become es- 
sentially a religion of the Spirit, and the 
multiplicity of religions that exist would be 
swallowed up in the true religion that, of a 
truth, exists in Spirit. In and by the Spirit 
all men, according to their degree of develop- 
ment, would receive the divine Ideals, and 
then give to the world that diversified ex- 
pression which each individual must give ac- 
cording as he has received. So that all ex- 
pression, while diversified in form, would in 
reality show only the true unity or oneness 
which lies back of all expression. Moreover, 
under the consciousness of this oneness of 
life, each man, woman, or child would bring 
something that was new or apparently origi- 



SCIENTIFIC LIVING 115 

nal to the outer world of expression, so that 
each one would consider it his quota of 
expression for the upbuilding of a new 
world. 

In the great Cosmic Consciousness, there 
are countless ideals that have not as yet 
found expression in man's outer world; each 
person would draw, in a greater or lesser de- 
gree, something new, and it would be his 
office to give expression to what he had 
drawn, in the way he was best qualified for 
doing it. This would give the real original- 
ity and variety to life so that no two people 
would be found doing exactly the same thing 
in exactly the same way. This, too, would 
tend to do away with the narrowing of one's 
life through copying from some one else. 
People must learn to copy from the divine 
Plan, and not from what some one else has 
given expression to, because such work is 
only a covering up and a hiding away of 
one's own possibilities and powers; in other 
words, if there is but one Source, and if 
everything is to be drawn from that one 



116 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Source, then that Source Is as much open to 
one individual as to another, and the only 
thing necessary is that the individual should 
adjust himself in such a way that he will re- 
ceive to the degree of his receptivity, or ac- 
cording to the demand that he makes for a 
supply sufficient for his every need. Then it 
will be found that according to the receptivity 
one has brought to the Fountain, he is going 
to receive from It; one man may have 
brought a cup, and he fills his cup to over- 
flowing; another a pitcher, and the pitcher is 
filled, another a great earthenware jar, all 
three have received to the capacity they were 
able to receive. One has not been dealt with 
sparingly and another In a generous way. 
It was open for the man with the cup to have 
brought a pitcher or a jar, and have had It 
filled; It was open to the man with the jar 
to have brought a cup; so It depends on the 
receptacle we bring to the Fountain of Life 
what we shall receive. There are no favor- 
ites with God; He neither punishes nor re- 
wards, but gives to all according to their own 



SCIENTIFIC LIVING 117 

desires, and the personal effort they make to 
express or to work for those desires. 

Man Is working out his own salvation, but 
that salvation Is worked out In a lawful and 
orderly way, according to a divine Plan. 
Man must be saved from his past divided 
consciousness, a consciousness which, to a 
very great degree, left God out of it, a con- 
sciousness we have all formed of good and 
evil, of love and hate, of faith and doubt, of 
hope and despair, a divided consciousness 
that gave the divided results of health and 
disease, of joy and sorrow, of life and 
death. The truly religious and scientific con- 
sciousness of the future will respond only to 
one law, viz. : the Law of the Spirit of Life; 
and It will become a consciousness from which 
sin, sorrow, disease, and death are all elimi- 
nated. The old consciousness was only at 
best a partial one ; the new consciousness, be- 
cause It is founded on one Life and Intelli- 
gence that Is In all, through all, and above 
all, will be the whole, the complete conscious- 
ness. Man's tree of Knowledge will have 



118 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

been replaced by the tree of Life. There is, 
however, the necessary preparation leading 
up to the higher consciousness through the 
gradual overcoming of old desires and old 
habits. The scientific way of living life is the 
overcoming of any partial or discordant con- 
ditions with something that is whole, some- 
thing which brings greater joy or peace to the 
mind, something that puts harmony in place 
of discord, that brings light where formerly 
there was darkness. Scientific living must al- 
ways take into consideration the fact that the 
part is related to the whole, and the part can 
be harmoniously adjusted only when it knows 
that its own good can be realized through 
the good that it is able to bring to the whole. 
There is nothing scientific in any thought or 
action that brings out the possibilities of the 
parts receiving benefit at the expense of the 
whole, but the good that each part is able to 
bring to the whole becomes the real means 
of benefiting the part. From first to last the 
partial, the incomplete, is to be replaced by 
wholeness and completeness. 



SCIENTIFIC LIVING 119 

It Is not through the retrospective that we 
are going to grow Into a larger life, but al- 
ways through the perspective that lies before 
us. It Is a leaving of the old behind and 
with conscious effort pressing forward to 
those things which are before. Scientific liv- 
ing means vital living, and vital living Is life 
and action. The people who are living In the 
past are dead people, people who have no 
true sense of the real requirements of the 
present, people who are living, not what they 
know to be true themselves, but what other 
people have thought, possibly ages ago. There 
is a vast difference between believing the 
truth, and knowing the truth. The belief is 
usually taken on the authority of others; the 
knowing Is what one has experienced for 
one's self. One can speak with authority only 
out of experience. It is what we live in 
thought and In action that really makes us 
what we are. If we are living simply on 
what other people have thought and done, 
that kind of work is the drudgery of life, It 
brings little of real gain or happiness. When 



120 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

we are receiving from the great Cosmic Mind 
new and living ideals and then working to 
give them form, only then are we really suc- 
cessful or happy; only then are we living a 
true, orderly, scientific life. 

The question may be asked by some, how 
shall we know when we are leading truly 
scientific lives? Let me touch on types of 
people who are not living such a life. Some- 
times we can see more clearly what one 
should do through seeing what one should 
not do. It clears the mind for the singleness 
of life. It shows that no real good can come 
to any one save as he lives the scientific life. 
First of all, people who are mentally or 
physically lazy always stand in their own 
light and are never able to accomplish, in 
any marked way, that which they may de- 
sire, but are unwilling to work for. 

Again, there are people who use entirely 
too much mental and physical energy in all 
they do. The whole mind and the whole 
body become tense in their doing and because 
of this, both mind and body become tired. 



SCIENTIFIC LIVING 121 

There Is too great an expenditufc of energy 
for the accomplishment of the purpose. 
There should be elasticity both of mind and 
body In everything we do. Too much ten- 
sion eventually leads to a breakdown. No 
one need hope to see things clearly If he 
allows his mind to become anxious or wor- 
ried. Anxiety and worry express themselves 
in many ways. They destroy one's real vital- 
ity, produce all kinds of nervous disturbances, 
and generally tend to make people miserable. 

There are some people who constantly 
dwell on their mental and physical troubles, 
and not only allow themselves to think about 
them but talk about them to others, so that 
they not only keep themselves in an unhappy 
frame of mind, but really exert a depressing 
and unwholesome influence upon the lives of 
others. People who choose the morbid and 
gloomy side of life are going to reap a 
harvest from the seed they have sown. In 
what way can one hope to benefit one's life 
by such an unreasoning course of living? 

Narrow-minded and bigoted people are 



12^ SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

never happy themselves, neither can they 
make others happy. The narrow-minded 
man shuts the light of truth out from his 
life. He can see good only in his own little 
beliefs and conceits. To him only the people 
who think and act as he does are worthy of 
his consideration. He narrows and curtails 
his own life and happiness. 

There is a class of people in the world 
among whom you find the fault-finders, the 
mischief-makers, and the scandal-mongers, 
who are only satisfied in doing something 
that is bound to make some one else miser- 
able. They do not know that by so doing 
they not only rob others but rob themselves, 
for the things they say and do come back 
with interest. What they sow in life they also 
reap. The evil they attribute to others is 
the evil which already exists in their own un- 
healthy and diseased mind. They correspond 
to the scavenger-birds and animals who live 
on the dead, unwholesome things, and they 
are a greater menace to the peace and well- 
being of society than probably any other class 



SCIENTIFIC LIVING 123 

of people. While they may consider it a 
heinous offense to rob people of their mate- 
rial goods, they are not slow about robbing 
people of their good names. Sooner or later 
there is measured back to them all that they 
have meted out to other people. 

Then there is the inquisitive person, who 
Is always trying to find out or in some way to 
manage other people's business. Men and 
women in this world will find that if they 
will attend to their own affairs, they will have 
little time to be meddling in the affairs of 
others. Again, we are constantly meeting 
with people who are always in a hurry. There 
Is an old proverb which says: "Haste makes 
waste." The man whose mind is always In 
a state of hurry will never do anything In 
the easiest or In the best way, but will be 
constantly adding to his own burdens. It Is 
quite possible to think quickly and clearly, 
and yet express the thoughts in strong, rapid 
action wherein there is neither hurry or 
worry, haste nor waste. 

There are people in the world who are 



124 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

anxious to get all they can from it and give 
but little. They are making one of the great- 
est mistakes In life if they think that success 
can be attained In this way. We can get 
from life what we give to It, and if we are 
giving nothing, then we can not get some- 
thing in return. There are many ways of 
giving. Whatever the giving may be, good 
or bad, it comes back to the giver to bless 
or to curse his life. 

Some people are constantly making mis- 
takes and trying to shift the responsibility of 
their mistakes upon others. This is a fruit- 
less task, for the responsibility must always 
rest upon the one to whom it belongs. 

Again, we have the weak and the shiftless, 
the parasites of humanity, who lack self- 
reliance and Independence, who are always 
expecting that other people are going to carry 
their burdens, the people who are trying to 
drift through life without making any real, 
individual effort, those do not receive the 
respect of their fellow-men, and consequently 
lose their own self-respect. They are the 



SCIENTIFIC LIVING 125 

laggards who never seem to get anywhere 
or to accomplish anything worth while. 

There are also the people who live ex- 
clusively for their own selfish alms and In- 
terests. These people are ready to profit at 
any moment by the necessities of others. 

Another class consists of those who are 
domineering, arrogant, and unreasoning; who 
are always absolutely sure that they are right 
and others are wrong; who try to compel 
others to do as they would have them to do. 
They are the people who criticize the motives 
and actions of others and always fall to give 
credit where credit Is due. 

Then there are the fearful and the doubt- 
ful-minded people who are always in a state 
of doubt or fear concerning pretty much 
everything In life. Their minds are never at 
peace or rest through dwelling upon or be- 
lieving in the unrealities of life. 

There are also the people who Indulge in 
anger, hatred, malice, envy, and jealousy. All 
these unreal emotions make for mental dis- 
order and bodily disintegration. The pois- 



126 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

oned mind begets the poisoned body. No 
one in this world can ever hope to be well 
or happy so long as he lives in and culti- 
vates any of these unreal emotions. 

All the foregoing statements go to show 
what the unscientific life is made up of. But 
it would not be wise for us to rest here be- 
cause the various things enumerated belong 
only to the negative side of life, things which 
have power, not of themselves, but because 
we give them power. They are man's partial 
or evil way of looking at life. He may be- 
lieve them to be true, but that does not make 
them true, and the very fact that no good 
thing can come to any one through following 
them shows that they should have no place in 
the life of man. Of what use is it to any 
one to follow any course in life if it is not 
going to give him something, to make him 
mentally happier or physically stronger; if, 
by following it, he is continually going to 
lose everything that makes for peace of mind 
and health of body? Surely, if one knows 
this, he is mentally unbalanced, even insane, 



SCIENTIFIC LIVING 127 

if he follows such a course In life when an- 
other course Is open to him, one that will 
bring him everything that heart or mind may 
desire, a course that will bring abounding 
health and lasting happiness. There are the 
two ways. Any person can choose which to 
take. One way leads to heaven, the other 
way leads to hell. Heaven and hell are both 
states of consciousness — a consciousness that 
we carry with us, no matter where we go. If 
we carry the consciousness of hell with us, 
when we pass out of the body we shall find 
ourselves as much in hell as when we lived 
in a physical body on earth. If we carry the 
consciousness of heaven with us, then we shall 
have entered into the Kingdom of God, and 
where the soul is, there will be the Kingdom 
of God. We can have one state of conscious- 
ness, or the other, but not both. If we die 
to the consciousness of hell, we shall live in 
the consciousness of heaven. If we are con- 
scious only of evil, then we shut ourselves 
out of Paradise; we can not know of or 
enter into the Kingdom of God. We can 



128 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

choose the unscientific way of living, a nega- 
tive life that keeps us constantly in a state of 
discord and pain, or we can choose the 
straight and narrow way that brings us the 
joy and the peace which passeth all under- 
standing. 

The scientific knowledge of life, then, is 
first of all the knowledge that Life is one; 
that everything in life is an expression of the 
One; that life lives in all its expressions; 
that each thing and person is a part of the 
whole; and that each thing and person may 
draw everything necessary for life from the 
one Source of all Life and Intelligence. Be- 
cause of the truth of this, the mind should be 
fully alive; we should be active in a mental 
and a physical way, and because of this activ- 
ity we shall grow into a fuller and more com- 
plete life. Moreover, in the living of our 
lives we should overcome worry and anxiety 
through faith and trust, seeing that in all 
natural living or lawful living there is a way 
in which we can use our energy that will give 
us the greatest results with the least expen- 



SCIENTIFIC LIVING 129 

diture of energy, and, therefore. It is needless 
for us to become tense or strained over any- 
thing. We should know, too, that all our 
mental and physical troubles are of our own 
making, that God never made them for us, 
that we burden ourselves down by refusing to 
see and to know that God is more willing to 
give than we are to receive; but if we are to 
receive we must put ourselves in a receptive 
state through keeping the mind bright and 
hopeful, and seeing that each cloud has its 
silver or golden lining. We should keep our 
minds open and be ever ready to see the 
truth in as whole and in as complete a way 
as it is possible at the moment for us to see 
it, so that all bigotry and narrow-mindedness 
will be overcome. Scientific living would 
show us that seeing the good in others means 
the development of good in our own lives. 
Whatever we are able to recognize in others 
that we may be quite sure we are In posses- 
sion of ourselves. If we must talk about 
others, then let us talk about their good qual- 
ities, for the more we try to see the good in 



130 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

people the more good we shall find in them. 
The best way to help others is through what 
we live ourselves, for a life well lived is 
really the best of sermons. Scientific living 
requires of us that, while we must put the 
strong force of mind and body into every- 
thing we do,, in the doing of this there need 
be neither hurry nor waste. It also shows us 
that the seed we plant will bring forth fruit 
after its kind, that our motives, thoughts, 
words, and deeds all go to make the seed of 
life, and whatever this seed may be, the 
harvest will be like unto it. In our own souls 
is to be found the Way, the Truth, and the 
Life, and, therefore, we can not shirk the re- 
sponsibility of living or any of the require- 
ments of life. It shows us also that the one 
who trusts in the Creative Power that lives 
and moves and has its being in his life, must 
always become reliant, or independent. It is 
the part of wisdom to refrain from the criti- 
cism of others because one can not know the 
motives that actuate other people and, there- 
fore, one can not judge any one else; and 



SCIENTIFIC LIVING 131 

not judging, one is not judged; and not con- 
demning, one Is not condemned. Always 
render credit where credit is due. People 
should never live for purely selfish ends or 
purposes, but live with the thought that, as 
we are members one of another, we should 
live one for another, and that because God 
is the Author of every good and every per- 
fect gift as we have all received from Him, 
so we should be humble and not try to Impose 
our will upon any one else. As we claim the 
right to think and act for ourselves, each 
person must be willing to concede such a 
right to others. We should allow the spirit 
of Love and Faith to so dominate the life 
that all fear and all doubt would be over- 
come, we should use a sweet reasonableness 
of mind that does not offend or give pain to 
any one else, we should aid others who are 
in need and never seek in any way to profit 
by their necessities, overcome anger, hatred, 
and malice with loving kindness and good- 
will, and feel that, because God Is more will- 
ing to give than we are to receive, there is 



132 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

absolutely no need of our being envious of 
any one else, for all that is really and truly 
ours no one can take from us and, therefore, 
there can be no need of envy or jealousy con- 
cerning any one else. 

This, then, is the pathway to all true scien- 
tific living. We can be unscientific or we can 
be scientific. Whichever life we live, we 
must live for ourselves, no one can live it for 
us. We can choose the one or the other, but 
the one or the other we must live. The un- 
scientific way is the way of sin, mental pain 
and sorrow, the way of physical pain and dis- 
ease, the way of death. The scientific way 
will lead us from the lowest depths to the 
highest heights; it will give us the enlarged 
vision, the clear seeing, and the clear hear- 
ing; the knowledge of all that is real and of 
all that is eternal. It will bring to us the 
joy, the peace, and the love, not only of that 
which flows through us from the one great 
Source of Love, Light, and Truth, but that 
which goes forth from each individual to 
bless and to comfort. We may enter into 



SCIENTIFIC LIVING 133 

the possession of all this If, In our hearts 
and minds, we desire It, but It Is necessary 
that such desire should exist before there can 
be any real work on our own part making 
for that end. One may enter the way at any 
moment he becomes satisfied that It Is the 
best way to go. At any moment that he Is 
willing, he can enter the pathway and walk 
therein, because there Is a divine element In 
the life of man that will help him to become 
what he wills to become, an element that 
tells him that all he feels with his heart and 
mind, that shall he become. Cultivate every 
true feeling. Cultivate strong, wholesome 
thought and from this source will come the 
true word and the righteous action. Live 
the scientific life and get the scientific re- 
sults. 



Chapter VII 
Heredity, True and False 



HEREDITY, TRUE AND FALSE 

One of the oldest and most persistent of 
theories, the most cruel and the most deadly 
in its effects, is that of heredity. Because 
man for ages has entertained the belief in its 
influence, it has, without doubt, been the 
cause of more deaths than war, pestilence, 
and famine combined. It has not only af- 
fected man*s physical well-being, but has 
filled the minds of people with remorse, sor- 
row, and misery of every kind. There is 
probably no one single theory of the past 
that has wrought such havoc in life as this 
most pernicious of theories has done. The 
world has every reason to be thankful that 
Its deadly influence is slowly but surely being 
undermined and destroyed. 

Previous to thirty years ago, the medical 
world attributed to heredity all forms of 

137 



138 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

disease, all abnormalities of mind or body, 
explaining every peculiarity, every form of 
weakness, every departure from the normal 
on the ground of inherited tendency, and 
family weakness — in fact, to heredity trans- 
mission. Indeed, heredity was made to do 
duty for everything that was not fully ac- 
counted for in some other way. This de- 
structive theory was further strengthened In 
its evil Influence by the teachings of the 
Church. The clergy were continually ex- 
plaining in this light the Biblical passage that 
"the sins of the fathers shall be visited on the 
children even unto the third and fourth 
generation," and their influence did much to 
reinforce medical opinion. Without ques- 
tion the passage has a meaning, but not that 
which was read into it by either the clergy- 
man or the physician. Let us quote the pas- 
sage again In full, "the sins of the fathers 
shall be visited upon the children, even unto 
the third and fourth geneatlon of them that 
hate me^^ (God). It is the last clause that 
contains the true significance. If the children 



HEREDITY, TRUE AND FALSE 139 

of succeeding generations follow In the foot- 
steps of the evilly disposed parents or grand- 
parents, then, because of this, the evil which 
befell their progenitors, shall be visited upon 
the children. It Is a statement of cause and 
effect — that "whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap." Whether the sins of the 
fathers continue to be visited on the children, 
generation after generation, will be entirely 
dependent on whether the succeeding genera- 
tions continue to be animated by the same 
evil passions, and controlled by the same dis- 
cordant thoughts. 

If they forsake the way of their ancestors, 
and follow after that which Is true and good, 
then the sins of past generations can have 
no effect on them. 

In entertaining the evil thoughts and feel- 
ings of their parents, or of others further re- 
moved, children become transgressors of the 
laws of life, and It Is always the transgressors 
who suffer. We are told In the Bible that 
If the evil man forsake his ways, God will 
be merciful to him. 



140 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Theology, without doubt, is quite as much 
responsible for the theory of hereditary trans- 
mission as are medical practitioners' beliefs 
and theories. The Church has taught that 
because of the fall of a man and a woman, 
thousands of years ago, the original sin or 
transgression has been visited on all man- 
kind ever since. This was a far more serious 
matter than are the sins which are visited 
upon the children even to the third and 
fourth generation. Theology also tells us 
that it was for this particular transgression, 
that Jesus was offered up as a sacrifice for 
the remission of sins. We are told that the 
necessity for such a sacrifice existed because 
of the sins of a man and a woman who lived 
in a purely mythical past, and that without 
the shedding of blood there could be no re- 
mission of sins; but that word "blood," 
viewed either from an esoteric or an exoteric 
standpoint, signifies life — a dying to a state 
of sin, and a living to a state of righteous- 
ness — a passing from that which is partial, 
to that which is whole. Wrote Tennyson: 



HEREDITY, TRUE AND FALSE 141 

*'I held It truth, with him who sings 
To one clear harp in divers tones, 
That men may rise on stepping-stones 
Of their dead selves to higher things." 

Moreover, according to the Apostle Paul, it 
was necessary that the old man — the man of 
sin, should die, before the new man — the man 
of righteousness — could come into being. This 
meant the shedding of blood — the sacrifice of 
the old, the necessary preparation for the con- 
scious realization of our true Inheritance — an 
inheritance not traced from Adam and Eve, 
but an inheritance that comes direct from the 
one great Source of Life and Intelligence. A 
mistaken theology has preached and taught 
a gospel of transmission of sin from the 
earliest times down to the present, and an 
equally mistaken medical profession has been 
actively engaged In an effort to overcome the 
physical results of sin with poisonous drugs 
and potions; and much harm and little good 
has resulted from either. 

Let us see how we enter Into the sins of 
others and are affected by them. I believe 



142 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

that the laws of the Infinite are absolutely 
just in their working, and that no one is 
punished for any one else's wrongdoing. I 
do not mean for an instant to say that we are 
not affected by the evil thoughts and com- 
munications of others, but I assert that, when 
this is the case, there must have been some- 
thing in us which responded to the wrong 
thoughts and false conditions of those others. 
And if we make the point of contact then 
we are responsible for all that follows. It is 
just as well that the place of responsibility 
should be clearly understood. Each indi- 
vidual who has reached years of understand- 
ing is responsible for his own life. The ad- 
justment to life is of his own making, and 
the responsibility for what he is can not be 
imputed to the Creator or shifted to the 
shoulders of any one else. Each man must 
bear his own burden. We are coming to 
understand what it means to work out our 
own salvation, not with fear and trembling, 
but with courage and hope. It may be said 
that each individual being a part of humanity 



HEREDITY, TRUE AND FALSE 143 

Is affected by the whole, and, therefore. Is 
not free, that If a whole acts upon the part 
for good, It must also act for all, and this 
action and Interaction Is constantly taking 
place In human life. In view of this. It might 
seem Impossible for the Individual to escape 
the evil thoughts and action coming from 
other lives. Superficially viewed, this would 
seem to be so, but the Individual, while not 
having the power to sever his life from the 
rest of humanity, does have the power of de- 
termining how his life shall be adjusted to 
It. So the whole question really becomes one 
of adjustment or right relationship. 

Let me use this as an Illustration: Some- 
times, through the unkind words or actions 
of others, one becomes sorely distrest, and 
may. In turn, retaliate In kind. Again, under 
exactly the same conditions, one may refuse 
to be disturbed, knowing that such an unkind 
condition proceeds from a false, or at least, 
a partial way of looking at life, and he does 
not allow himself to descend to the plane of 
the other. He Is, therefore, not affected In 



144 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

any disagreeable way by the wrongdoing of 
the other. Most of us have yet to learn that 
our responsibility is first of all for the self, 
because one must live one's own life, whether 
he wants to or not. The Creator never de- 
signed that he should live the life of another. 
Our true responsibility then to others consi-sts 
far more in what we live rightly ourselves 
than in any pressure we could bring upon 
others, to make them think or do the things 
as we desire them to do. Individual freedom 
is necessary for the freedom of the whole, 
and individual freedom can be maintained 
only through the full concession of freedom 
to others. 

Somehow, many people think that the 
world can be kept right only through the 
regulation of other people's lives. They fail 
to see that the Creator is also the preserver. 
They also fail to see that no matter whether 
we use the term good or evil, all things work 
together for good, the temporary evil that 
befalls an individual being only a necessary 
experience to greater growth and fuller de- 



HEREDITY, TRUE AND FALSE 145 

velopment; and so, while another In his kind- 
ness of heart might desire to see that experi- 
ence withheld, and do all In his power to pre- 
vent or retard Its coming, yet in taking this 
course, he might only be interfering with or 
hindering the growth of the other; for ex- 
perience Is, after all, the greatest Instructor. 
We seldom or never know the real truth of 
anything, save as we pass through It. In this 
way one develops a greater knowledge and 
a more vital power. 

I am trying to show the right of the Indi- 
vidual to live his own life according to his 
highest ideals, and that, through doing this, 
he becomes adjusted to the rest of humanity 
In a thoroughly harmonious way. His own 
heart and mind make for him the conscious- 
ness that will attract to him from others only 
that which he gives them, and In no sense is 
It necessary for him to be affected by the sins 
of others save as he allows a point of con- 
tact to exist In his own life. If one Is con- 
scious that light overcomes darkness, that 
love overcomes hate, that good overcomes 



146 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

evil, then by one's living in the light, by 
loving and doing good, no darkness, no hate, 
no evil can penetrate from the consciousness 
of others to one's own. Some people may 
grant the truth of this, but will also add: 
"In what way does all this affect children? 
Are not the sins visited upon the children?" 
I believe that the influence of the Father- 
Mother God upon the life of the child is far 
greater than any its earthly parents may be 
able to exert upon it. But, granting that the 
parents do exert evil influences upon their 
children, which, for a season, may very de- 
cidedly affect their lives, it need be only a 
temporary influence which, in the course of 
time, can be put aside or overcome. 

There is also another side to this question, 
which few people ever think about. Material 
scientists tell us that it has taken countless 
ages for man to reach the development he 
now enjoys. Is it to be supposed that the 
little span of years by which we measure life 
on this planet is either the beginning or end- 
ing of anything? No, It Is only one little 



HEREDITY, TRUE AND FALSE 147 

note In the great symphony of life, and chil- 
dren in this life without doubt are being 
rewarded or punished for things done or 
left undone in a past life; not being re- 
warded or punished by the Father- Mother 
God, but reaping the rewards of their own 
good thoughts and actions, or of evil thoughts 
and deeds. The environment In which they 
live Is a direct result of past thought and ac- 
tion. It Is not conceivable that an all-loving 
God would bring some children Into life 
under the most adverse conditions while giv- 
ing to others everything that would make for 
the most harmonious conditions. No, there 
is a law of cause and effect — that which a man 
sows he reaps — and part of the reaping is 
transferred from one life to another. Man 
punishes or rewards himself. Some necessary 
conditions or possible mistakes are being 
worked out In the perfecting of his life. 

In the great economy of life nothing Is 
lost. Everything fulfils some purpose, some 
particular need. All things are working to- 
gether for good, but only the enlightened 



148 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

soul is able to perceive it. Each individual is 
an epitome of his own past. Physically, he 
is an epitome of all physical creation, a sum- 
ming up, in his own body, of all the varying 
elements. Mentally, he is an epitome of all 
that has been lived in mind and thought 
from the lowest elemental stage up to what 
we call the world^s civilization, for what all 
the world has lived from the dawning of con- 
sciousness to the present, is simply what all 
the individual units have lived. If man's 
body stands representative of the physical 
universe, and if man's mind is the summing 
up of the thought and reason of the past, 
then man's soul must be the microcosm of 
the great macrocosm, and latent within that 
soul, is every quality and every power possest 
by the great Universal Soul, and man is the 
inheritor, the real heir of everything in God's 
visible and invisible universe. 

In his earliest consciousness, he was able 
only to realize in a very partial and incom- 
plete way that certain things in his outer 
world should become his possession; that 



HEREDITY, TRUE AND FALSE 149 

through their use his own Hfe was to be 
benefited. Sometimes he was able to gain 
these things only through a great struggle, 
and with danger to himself, and he looked 
upon everything which tended to thwart his 
efforts as being evil. There was the con- 
stant struggle for existence going on, and 
because of that struggle, little by little 
he was developing a larger consciousness; 
thought and reason were coming to play their 
part in life, but the mind, because it was only 
partial in its development, could see in only a 
partial way. To it, also, slowly but surely, 
came the consciousness of a great intelligent 
Power, creating, guiding, and directing the 
whole universe through law and order, but, 
while recognizing this, man failed to recog- 
nize that he was amenable to the same law 
and order, and so he set for himself the task 
of making what he deemed necessary laws to 
regulate and direct his own life. With the 
beginning of this law, sin entered his world; 
so, if there had been no law, there could have 
been no sin. Whenever he failed to live all 



150 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

that his law required of him, then in his 
mind he was convicted of sin or of failure to 
live in conformity to his own law. Thus 
there was introduced into his world a law 
of sin and death. And the sins of one man 
descended to another. Under man*s law he 
came to look upon himself, not as a child of 
God, but rather as a product of earthly par- 
ents, and to think that his parents trans- 
mitted their own qualities to their children; 
he thought of himself as of the earth, earthy; 
as coming from the dust and returning to 
dust. Speaking from the altitude of spir- 
itual vision, Jesus said: "Call no man your 
father." Ye have hut one father, your 
Father in heaven — the indwelling Presence 
— that in the process of development takes 
form and becomes fully exprest on earth. 

Humanity Is a great brotherhood. We are 
all parts or members of this brotherhood. 
God is alone the Father and Mother of each 
and every father. Sin, disease, and death are 
all of man*s own making. It was necessary 
that he should pass through all the different 



HEREDITY, TRUE AND FALSE 151 

phases in life in order that, through the great 
law of contrast, or better, might I say, the 
law of contradictories, he might come at last 
to see that his mistakes were to be the 
means for their own correction — the stepping- 
stones whereby he mounted to higher things. 
Thus he shall see that the sins of life came 
from human ideals, that at best were partial 
and incomplete, and that these ideals have 
to be replaced by divine ideals — ideals which 
have wholeness and completeness in them; 
that pain and disease of body existed solely 
because of false ideals, and that, with spir- 
itual light, the world should become filled 
with new harmonies of life, and the shadows 
of sin be left behind. Death is to be over- 
come with life; with the consciousness that 
there is only one Life in all the parts and 
this Life can never cease in the part any 
more than it can cease in the whole. Thus 
the part is inseparable from the whole as the 
ray is from the sun — it never had, never 
could have any existence of its own. In God 
It lived and moved and had its being. 



152 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

There never was any reality in sin, dis- 
ease, or death. Man in his partial con- 
sciousness concerning life believed all these 
to be true, and because of such belief, he 
shaped his life accordingly; but all the while 
there was a law of a Spirit of Life, which 
never ceased to act, and while man might be 
unconscious of it, he was, nevertheless, being 
acted upon by it. With the coming of the 
spiritual consciousness there begins that pass- 
ing from death unto life; that entering into 
the glorious liberty of the sons of God, when 
all the old order passes. The Old and New 
Testaments both refer to a king of Salem 
who was known by the name of Melchisedek, 
and we are told that he was without begin- 
ning of days or end of life. Paul refers to 
Jesus as belonging to this same order. This 
old yet ever new order, which, before one 
can enter its fulness, must be preceded by 
that new birth as a full consciousness enters 
the mind, that it is not born of blood, nor of 
the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but 
of God, for this is the only real inheritance 



HEREDITY, TRUE AND FALSE 153 

— an Inheritance that existed for the soul, 
not In the beginning but In the great Forever. 
In the spiritually enlightened soul there Is 
consciousness of neither time nor space. We 
are not heirs of Adam, or of any earthly 
man. The attributes of our souls, the facul- 
ties of our mind, have never been conferred 
on us by earthly parents. God Is the only 
giver of every good and every perfect gift. 



Chapter VIII 
Conformity to Ideals 



CONFORMITY TO IDEALS 

The laws of life are so absolutely just in 
their working that when any one transgresses 
them, the penalty is as great as the trans- 
gression. It can not be too clearly under- 
stood that there is no judge outside of man 
judging or condemning. The judgment of 
other people, be it true or false, is no part 
of real judgment for any one other than for 
the individual who commits himself to such 
judgment. All people are judged by their 
own ideals. Judgment and condemnation 
come to the individual because of a failure 
to live the highest ideals he has been able to 
discern and give form to in his mind. 

Justification is also an individual act 
wherein one, having lived the highest ideals 
of which he is capable, is justified in his own 
mind or, we might say, truly adjusted to his 
life. 

157 



158 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

People are often found who have two sets 
of ideals, one which they use for themselves 
and one which they use for judging others, 
little thinking the standard of judgment or 
condemnation set up for others is going to 
be the standard by which they themselves 
shall be judged; for "with what measure ye 
mete, it shall be measured to you again,*' and 
"with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be 
judged." Some may think that what they 
feel and think about others can in no way 
affect their own lives, but in this they are 
mistaken. Whatever one feels or thinks 
concerning any one else, one is feeling or 
thinking quite as much for oneself; the 
thought goes to the forming either of a true 
or a false ideal; it is not only consciously 
thought, but it becomes a part of one's sub- 
consciousness. The unkind criticism, the con- 
demnation, the lack of forgiveness in one's 
mind held toward one or many, will pro- 
duce exactly the same mental discord and un- 
rest in the mind of the person who thinks it 
toward others as it would do if entertained 



CONFORMITY TO IDEALS 159 

by those others. It»will evidence itself In a 
mental way as discord and unrest, and In a 
physical way as pain and disease. 

No one can hope to be at peace In his 
own mind If, he Is dwelling on what seems to 
him evil and unreal conditions In the lives of 
others, and meting out. In his mind, judg- 
ment and condemnation upon them. The 
person who formulates his own Ideals, and 
lives up to them, will find little time for 
either judging or condemning others, and 
the example of such a life will go far In In- 
fluencing others to right thought and right 
action. We are what we are, because of our 
Ideals, a man never lives beyond his highest 
Ideal, but If he lives up to his highest Ideal, 
then new Ideals are evolved and these. In 
turn, tends to an ever-increasing life. If we 
could only remember that there is absolutely 
no escape from our ideals, and that we can 
be at peace with ourselves only through loyal- 
ty to our highest Ideals, a great deal of the 
discord and unrest which we now experience 
would soon be dissipated. 



160 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Ideals are influenced In two ways : through 
observation of the lives of others or from 
one's own innate consciousness. When the 
mind contemplates the virtues or the great- 
ness of other lives there Is apt to be a move- 
ment from one's own consciousness so that 
both the inner and the outer life go to make 
for what we term our ideals of life. We 
draw from the outer life mental pictures; If 
a degree of clearness, of wholeness and com- 
pleteness enters into their construction, then 
from the Inner consciousness there comes the 
tone and color necessary for a perfected 
Ideal, that Is, relatively perfected, for living 
ideals are constantly enlarging, and perfec- 
tion, at best, Is only a relative term. Into all 
our thought-pictures of life enters something 
of light and shade; shade, however, serves 
only as background to make manifest life's 
real pictures. One's mind must ever become 
centered In the thought that all things are 
working together for good; that what seems 
to be other than good, comes solely from our 
looking at life in a partial or In an Incom- 



CONFORMITY TO IDEALS 161 

plete way. Each so-called evil or contra- 
dictory state in life is only an evidence of 
lack of wholeness or completeness, and when 
that which is whole is come, that which is in 
part shall be done away with. Oneness, 
unity is written into all things, and in all 
things there is oneness of life but diversity 
in expression. If oneness is overlooked, we 
shall be able to see only discord in diversity. 
The mind's thought-pictures, be they true 
or false, be they whole or partial, become ex- 
ternalized on the body. All our thoughts 
contribute to the sum total of what the body 
is. Thoughts wherein unity, wholeness and 
completeness enter, are creative, especially 
when reinforced by man's higher feelings; 
and such thoughts go for the upbuilding and 
strengthening of man's physical organism. 
We can make our bodies as whole and as 
strong as we wish, by encouraging real desire 
and establishing the habit of true, strong, 
self-controlled thinking. The Creator has 
committed to our care minds to be enlight- 
ened and controlled, bodies to be made strong 



162 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

and kept whole; and our doing of this is at 
best only a reasonable service. 

When we leave oneness out of life, and 
our thoughts become discordant and incom- 
plete, then, because it is the law that all 
thought-pictures in mind must be exprest, the 
body begins to respond, and the mental 
thought-pictures show forth as physical dis- 
ease. The body is the reflector, the mirror 
which shows outwardly what we are inward- 
ly. We can not hold even for others untrue 
thoughts or false emotional feeling without 
this in turn affecting our physical bodies. 

Humanity must be considered as a great 
whole; that which affects any part or any 
person for ill has its reactionary effect on the 
whole, and that which produces good in any 
one part makes for the upbuilding and the 
strengthening of the whole. The part works 
for the whole as much as the whole works 
for the part; and not until the very last soul 
is saved from its sin, disease, and death, can 
a full and a complete salvation come for the 
whole. We are all members one of another; 



CONFORMITY TO IDEALS 163 

if any member suffers, the whole body suffers 
with it; If any member rejoices, all the mem- 
bers rejoice. When one attains to a knowl- 
edge of the Kingdom of Heaven that is 
within, his desire Is to help bring the same 
knowledge to others, and he takes something 
of their burdens, as it were, upon himself In 
order to come Into closer relationship and 
prove of greater help to them. 

We hear the Nazarene spoken of as being 
"a man of sorrows, and acquainted with 
grief." We see Him weeping over Jerusa- 
lem because of her refusal to be saved from 
her sins. His weeping. His sorrow. His 
grief were not occasioned because of any- 
thing that existed in His own life. He had 
risen above the worries, anxieties, and 
troubles of the everyday life of the people 
about Him. He had entered into a con- 
scious realization of His sonship with God. 
His sorrow and grief were occasioned by the 
fact that the people about Him were blind 
to their real welfare. He knew that they 
might be saved from disease of mind and of 



164 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

body if they would only learn of Him, if 
they would only follow in His footsteps. He 
also knew that they would suffer in mind and 
in body if they refused to do so, but on every 
side He was met with rebuff and refusal. He 
grieved and sorrowed because of the great 
pain and sorrow the people were engaged in 
bringing upon themselves. 

I have already said that the laws of life 
are absolutely just in their working, that 
every man is judged according to his ideals, 
when man knows but little, but little is re- 
quired of him. That little, however, is re- 
quired, for when one has any consciousness 
of right, then, only as he fulfils that con- 
sciousness in thought, word, and act, is he in 
harmony with the law. "To whom much is 
given," that is, to the enlightened mind, the 
mind that knows, "Of him much shall be re- 
quired." Some might argue, from this, as 
Solomon had previously done, that much 
knowledge is weariness of mind and vexation 
of spirit. Why increase one's burdens in life 
by seeking after greater knowledge, when 



CONFORMITY TO IDEALS 165 

such greater knowledge only incurs greater 
responsibilities and the law holds you to 
strict account for the fulfilment of every re- 
sponsibility? Such a view of life would be 
superficial. In the evolution of life a man 
must develop, whether he wants to or not. 
He is going to bring far more distress and 
sorrow into his life because of his refusal to 
accept knowledge and the responsibilities 
which go with it, than he could in any other 
possible way. With the ever-increasing knowl- 
edge and the responsibilities flowing from 
such knowledge, there comes the ever-added 
power and strength to meet each one of life's 
problems, to effect true inner and outer ad- 
justment to life. Therefore, it is not the 
part of wisdom for any one to avoid knowing 
in order to escape doing, but rather should 
he seek knowledge in order to become wise; 
for wisdom is first of all understanding, and 
then such understanding is transmuted into 
action. The understanding is the inner ad- 
justment, and the living up to such under- 
standing is the corresponding adjustment to 



166 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

environment. True knowledge and true 
works are the two ends of real wisdom. The 
wise man goes on consistently working out a 
true salvation, no matter how many responsi- 
bilities are entailed in the doing of it. 

We find some people who think that their 
health and happiness are only a question of 
the temperament they were born with, and 
because they have this or that kind of tem- 
perament, that they are, therefore, in no 
way responsible for their health or happiness. 
This is altogether a mistaken idea, for no 
matter what our temperament may be, we 
have the power to overcome any wrong phase 
of it; we have the power to become what 
we will to become. The weak, sensitive tem- 
perament that is so easily hurt by the unkind 
look, word, or act, may be made the strong, 
sensitive temperament that, while quick to feel 
and to know, is in no way disturbed by the 
false thoughts or actions of others, but knows 
how to meet and overcome each obstacle that 
presents itself in life. The morbid or gloomy 
temperament may become the bright, hopeful 



CONFORMITY TO IDEALS 167 

one. Every weakness we find In ourselves 
we can change, and bring to fulness and 
strength. We can round out our lives and 
become all that we desire to be. Good habits 
are as easy to form and retain as bad ones, 
when we work with a will to replace the 
old by the new. Man Is not left at the mercy 
of any thing or person save his own Ideals. 
He must, however, live his own Ideals or 
take all the punishment that comes through 
their neglect. It Is possible for one to so 
regulate, control, and direct his thoughts that 
he can adjust himself to any environment, or 
can rise above and become. If necessary, un- 
conscious to disagreeable things or people. 
He can shape his life so as to control circum- 
stances. He can. If he will, be a giant 
among his fellow-men. When his whole life 
is under perfect self-control he can determine 
what to think, and what to do, and what to 
be. He will always be ready to act when 
occasion requires action. He will always 
have what is known as presence of mind, 
that Is, a thoroughly centered mind which 



168 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

knows how to use energy in the true way 
and to get from such use the greatest pos- 
sible results. 

Life is ever a process of becoming, where- 
in one change follows another in an orderly 
procession; it should be a continuous leaving 
of old things and conditions behind, and a 
continuous pressing forward to the ideals that 
are ever before. This is living in the new- 
ness of life; this is the real becoming. Take 
the life of the Man of Nazareth as an illus- 
tration: when gentleness was required He 
was always gentle; when firmness was re- 
quired. He was always firm. No matter 
what the situation might be. He was ready 
to meet any and every emergency in a true 
way with dignity, with sympathy, with re- 
pose, with firmness, with wisdom, every trait 
of character expressing itself always and at 
all times in exactly the right way. "Learn 
of Me." Manifold, indeed, are the lessons 
we might all learn from that majestic life, 
which is at once so human and yet so divine 
that It represents the ideal, the measure, the 



CONFORMITY TO IDEALS 169 

stature unto which all men must attain, 
summing up, as it did, all the elements that 
go to make a true man, that go to make a 
conscious son of God. 

In all the Gospels there Is not one word 
said of His ever being sick. Sometimes, 
after mingling with the multitudes and minis- 
tering to their needs, both in a mental and In 
a physical way, He went out on the sea or 
up into the mountains so that His outer 
mind might be renewed by the indwelling 
Spirit, but it was only for a season. He re- 
turned to the people with a greater strength 
and power to give of Himself in order to 
help to supply the needs of the people. His 
life was a never-ending desire to serve His 
fellow-men, a literal showing forth In His 
own life of that precept He gave His disci- 
ples: 'Whosoever will be chief among you, 
let him be your servant." Love and service 
were the two greatest secrets of His Influence 
in life; and the man or woman who lives to 
love and to serve has already entered into 
the Kingdom of God. 



Chapter IX 
States of Consciousness 



STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 

Concentration has to do with our outer 
consciousness, that is, with the external world 
in which we live. But there is another con- 
sciousness — an Inner consciousness, that is 
just as real as our outer consciousness, and 
the means of entering into this inner con- 
sciousness of life is through meditation. 

We may have thought that we were living 
in a physical world, and that some time we 
should go to live in a spiritual world; that 
when we discard the physical form, then we 
shall enter into a spiritual world. But few 
have thought that there is a physical or 
outer world, and also a spiritual or Inner 
world; that we are all living in both worlds 
now at the present time, sometimes In one 
and sometimes in the other. But such is the 
case. There is an inner consciousness of life 
that is entirely different from any external or 
material consciousness of life. 

173 



174 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Now, the outer consciousness deals with 
the effects or forms of things. The outer 
consciousness is where power is exprest; the 
inner consciousness is where power is ac- 
quired. Before we can express power, we 
must learn to acquire power. And as we 
acquire power, we can use it in a satisfactory 
way, or we can dissipate it without getting 
any great results. Concentration is a means 
to the right use of power, so that the power 
we use shall accomplish the greatest amount 
of good to any given end or purpose. Con- 
centration, remember, is a faculty of the 
mind. Concentration is not power, but rather 
the use of power and its best use. We find 
that, when the mind is thoroughly centered 
on whatever we are doing, we then do the 
thing in an easy way, and in a right way. 
We find that when the mind is centered we 
are putting something of ourselves into our 
work; but when we allow the mind to be- 
come distracted then our attention is part of 
the time upon our work, and part of the 
time we are forgetful of what we are doing. 



STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 175 

Just as soon as we become forgetful or ab- 
stracted In the doing of anything, we are 
then almost sure of making mistakes. Occa- 
sionally It happens that when people have 
gone on for a long time doing a certain thing 
automatically, as we might say, they can do 
it without a great deal of attention, but until 
we have succeeded In establishing In the sub- 
conscious mind such conditions as induce this 
automatic action, we shall find that It is much 
better to put our whole thought Into what- 
ever we are doing. 

Concentration has, as we have said, to do 
with the objective world. There is no such 
thing as concentration In the spiritual or 
inner consciousness. Some people say that 
they wish to concentrate on spiritual truth. 
Now there is no possibility of concentration 
on spiritual truth — there Is no possibility of 
concentration on any spiritual cause. You 
must have an object on which to concentrate. 
One might take a book and hold It be- 
fore you and ask you to concentrate on It. 
For a little time the mind could be centered 



176 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

on that book. By and by you would find 
that the mind would get tired of looking at 
the book, because there must be a certain 
variety, we might say, entering into concen- 
tration in order to keep the mind from be- 
coming unduly weary or tiredi 

I might say you were asked to concentrate 
on the book, in order to show you that an 
object is necessary for concentration. 

If asked, however, to concentrate on the 
space that the book occupied you would see at 
once how impossible that would be, because 
the mind requires an object in order to con- 
centrate, and if you had no object, then there 
could be no concentration. 

I want to make this thoroughly clear so 
that people will not be confused by terms; 
because very often you will find people using 
the word "Concentration,'' when they mean 
meditation, and meditation has nothing to 
do with objects. Meditation is the means 
by which one passes from the objective world 
Into the subjective world. 

Now, In all concentration we are using 



STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 177 

energy, but we are using the smallest amount 
of energy and getting the largest amount of 
results from such concentration. If we could 
only take this thought into our daily lives, 
that whatever we do through concentration 
of mind we can do better, more quickly, more 
easily, then we should have gained so much 
that we should be able to accomplish any- 
where from fifty to a hundred or two hun- 
dred per cent, more than we are doing at 
present. When one gets hurried, there Is lit- 
tle accomplished, because the mental hurry 
keeps the mind from becoming centered on 
what one wants to do. 

Concentration does not mean that we are 
not to think quickly or act quickly, but It 
means that we think and act on one thing at 
a time, and through doing this we are using 
the smallest amount of energy and getting 
the largest results. We can concentrate on 
our own bodies — we can center the mind on 
the parts that are weak, and we can think 
of those parts as being whole and strong. 

Now, when we withdraw thought from 



1T8 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

any part of the body, that part of the body 
becomes relaxed; but when we put energy 
back Into that part, It becomes strong. I 
want to show in a very simple way that there 
Is a mental way of attaining health and 
strength; I am speaking now, I might say, 
of the outer way — the concentration on the 
body. Of course, we may carry this far 
beyond mere concentration on the body, but 
If you concentrate on any part of the body, 
and think strength Into that part, then 
strength goes Into that part. I can relax my 
arm, but before I relax my hand and my arm, 
there must be a withdrawal of thought from 
hand and arm. But just as soon as I think 
and use will, back again there flows strength, 
energy and power Into arm and hand. 

We say that parts of our bodies are weak, 
and parts of our bodies are strong; but sup- 
posing we have the power to send energy Into 
the weak part, what Is that going to mean? 
It Is going to mean that eventually the weak 
part win become just as strong as any other 
part. Any one can prove the truth of this 



STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 179 

for himself. It is not a mere theory that we 
can discuss and talk over, and nothing come 
of it; but any one can get the actual demon- 
stration for himself, if he just sets his mind 
to the perfecting of his body. These bodies 
of ours, remember, are our servants, and if 
we use them as they should be used they 
will respond to our every effort; but if we 
allow them to become weak or worn out, 
then they will not respond aright to the mind. 
Too often we wear out our bodies 
through lack of concentration. Some people 
say it is because of overwork; but It is not 
so much because of overwork as of the way 
in which we do our work. If we are work- 
ing at one thing, and thinking about a dozen 
other things, then the mind is abstracted 
from the thing we are doing, and we are 
not doing it well, in other words, it is hard 
work; and when we undertake to do some- 
thing else, having already, perhaps, done It 
two or three times in mind, there Is no 
change, and the result is that we are tired 
out In the doing of It, we are not then using 



180 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

our forces in the right way. But every time 
we leave one thing and go to something else 
that is, in a sense, new, the change from the 
one thing to the other should bring rest and 
renewed power of concentration. 

But concentration, remember, does not 
mean mental tension. Some people exert 
their minds so much that the whole body be- 
comes tense. Now, when the body gets into 
that condition, this is what happens: because 
of that tension, you are putting three, or 
four, or five or even more times the amount 
of energy into the thing than is necessary for 
the doing of it. Therefore, keep all tension 
out, and just let the power act in a strong 
way, but not in a tense way. When you see 
a man^s hands clenched, you will know that 
that man is using three or four times as 
much power as is necessary for him to use. 
In talking, or lecturing, one should be able 
to send his voice out so that the persons 
sitting in the rear would hear just as 
distinctly as those sitting in front; but he is 
not supposed to use his voice in such a way 



STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 181 

as to fill a hall of four or five thousand peo- 
ple, If there are only seventy-five or a hun- 
dred to address. But to some speakers It 
makes little If any difference whether the 
listeners are few or many; whether the room 
Is large or whether the room Is small; the 
voice Is made to carry, and there Is a loud- 
ness, a strain, which exhausts the speaker and 
hearers alike. I have also a decided opin- 
ion that In the delivery of a lecture the 
speaker should feel better after he has finished 
his lecture than before he began — If he has 
been talking about something that Is going 
to make for uplift and happiness — then 
the Idea of getting tired Is an absurdity. But 
In the giving of a lecture, as In everything 
else, the mind must be thoroughly centered 
on what we are doing and then we shall use 
only just enough power to do the thing, 
whatever It may be. In the best possible way. 
All these things you can prove for your- 
selves; there Is no necessity for you to take 
my word for It. The real necessity Is this: 
to know that if this theory Is true for me, 



182 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

or for any one else, then it must be true for 
every one, but only those who test its truth 
will get the result. Information about con- 
centration and meditation would be of little, 
if any, avail unless we learn to use it. Now 
I know what can be accomplished: I know 
that when a person has once acquired the 
habit of concentration, he will never go back 
to the old ways of thinking and doing, but 
will follow the new way, and accomplish a 
great deal more for himself and for others 
through such concentration of mind. 

Behind concentration, however, there must 
be something else. There must be a definite 
plan in view. You must know something of 
what you want to concentrate on. You 
must not concentrate blindly on anything, but 
you must have a definite object, a definite 
purpose for concentration. The object may 
be trivial at one time, and it may be great 
at another time, but if you use concentration 
in the little things of life, remember, you 
establish a habit which will make concentra- 
tion easy in the great things of life. 



STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 183 

We are all subject to habit; and when we 
establish a good habit, it is just as effective 
in Its way as when we establish a bad habit. 
When one establishes a bad habit, one feels 
it next to impossible to get away from that 
wrong habit — it is so much easier to do the 
thing than not to do it. And that is just as 
true In establishing a good habit. What 
comes from establishing a habit? Habits are 
formed, first of all, through mental pictur- 
ing. In establishing a habit, we may not be 
conscious of what we are doing, but we have 
some mental picture — some thing In mind 
that we have thought about, and then we go 
to work and do that thing; a few days later 
we repeat it, and every time we do it, we 
find It easier to do. By and by there comes, 
we might say, an ''urge" from within toward 
this habit, so that If we try to get away from 
it. It acts Insistently upon us to keep us In 
the habit. Now, why is this ? Every, time 
we do a thing, the mind forms a picture 
of that thing; when we do It again, that 
old picture returns, to give force to the 



184 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

new picture; and so we are constantly filling 
the subconscious mind with those pictures or 
habits of life which may work for our good 
or may work for our ill, just according to the 
plan of life we have laid out for ourselves. 
If our plan benefits us at the time, it shows 
that there must be something in the plan 
which is good; but its benefits do not end, 
remember, with the mere thinking of that 
plan; they become a part of our lives, and 
live on in the life, and then whenever we 
make a plan that Is in any way related to this 
old plan, the old plan comes up as an aid to 
help us carry out the new. 

You will find it difficult to do new 
things — it is much easier to do the old things. 
It is much easier to think the old thoughts 
than it is to think the new thoughts. But it 
is only easier because of the habit that has 
been established in the subconscious mind. It 
is easier to dwell on the fact of weakness, of 
debility, or disease, than it is to think on the 
reverse of these, because we have been dwell- 
ing on weakness and we have been thinking 



STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 185 

of disease in the past, and when the subject 
comes up, the subconscious mind begins to 
call up all those recollections from the past. 
If that is true, we have the key to the reason 
for making mistakes in life, when we have 
no desire to make them, that is, when the 
conscious mind is anxious to do something 
that is right, and the subconscious mind 
comes up as a factor and causes you to do 
the wrong thing. If that is true, then we 
also have it within ourselves to change all 
that, to establish new habits and to make 
these new habits far more effective than ever 
the old habits were. We have it within our 
power to establish the habit of strength, the 
habit of health, the habit of concentration, 
the use of power. We can do all this, but 
we must will to do it; we must set our minds 
to the accomplishment of a definite end. 

Again, besides the plan, and besides con- 
centration on it, there is needed the ele- 
ment of perseverance. "It is a difficult 
thing to establish the new habit," you say. 
Yes, it is at first, because of the old habits; 



186 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

but by and by you will find it a very easy 
thing. All that is required is a certain 
amount of perseverance, in order to establish 
the new habit. So, you see, perseverance and 
thought-picturing and concentration have all 
to do with the things which we wish to ac- 
complish in the great outer world. 

I have been dealing so far with an outer 
world, where concentration is necessary in 
order to get the best results ; but I am going 
to deal with the inner world. In all this, I 
have been trying to show that power is used 
through concentration; that energy is used; 
and that whenever a thought enters the mind, 
it takes a certain amount of energy to give 
shape, to give form to that thought; that 
whatever we do, we are using energy in this 
outer world. But if we are using energy in 
the outer world, we can not go on indefinitely 
using it without some source from which 
to draw it, and, therefore, we find that 
energy is not external to us — it is not some- 
thing that is going to come to us through 
merely eating a certain amount of food. 



STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 187 

Food replenishes the waste tissue of the 
body, but you all know that some people 
with very little strength eat a great deal of 
food, and that other people, with a great 
deal of strength, eat but little food. It is 
not a question, remember, of what we eat or 
what we drink. There is another food which 
is more real than physical food. Said Jesus: 
''I have bread to eat which ye know not of." 
Moreover, we know that: "Man shall not 
live by bread alone, but by every word that 
proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Here 
then is a food which many of us have, per- 
haps, eaten, all unconscious of the fact that 
it is a bread of Heaven, and just as essential 
even more so to the life of man than 
the physical bread he eats. How do we 
come into possession of this bread, because 
from it will be drawn all the mental and all 
the spiritual strength of life? This we re- 
ceive through earnest meditation. 

What is meditation? Meditation in its 
first degree is desire of mind. Suppose you 
desire greater power; suppose you desire 



188 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

greater health, greater peace of mind. Now, 
we call that desire prayer. In the past we 
have thought of a Being, who, if we should 
pray to Him earnestly, sending forth a fer- 
vent supplication, would, because of such 
supplication, grant us our desire. But the 
Master has told us that God is more willing 
to give than we are to receive, and some of 
the Master's followers have said that God 
required nothing at our hands— that when 
we were praying to God, we were not con- 
ferring any favor on God through such 
prayer, or aiding Him in any way. Then 
why should the desire go out? What neces- 
sity Is there for prayer If God Is more willing 
to give than we to receive? The desire goes 
out because It Is necessary to relate the mind 
to that which it desires. It Is the magnet 
which draws to us that which heart or mind 
desires. Everything In the universe Is ours, 
as is Illustrated by the fact that every- 
thing that enters Into the material body of 
man is one with everything else In the mate- 
rial universe, and that there Is nothing in 



STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 189 

the material universe that does not exist in 
the body of man. This shows that the body 
of man epitomizes the material universe; 
and in just the same way the soul in man 
epitomizes God's spiritual universe and the 
whole spiritual consciousness, because it is one 
with the All-Spirit. There is no separation 
between the individual soul and the Great 
Over-Soul, any more than there is a separa- 
tion between one part of the sun and all the 
other parts of the sun. There is the universal 
energy at the center of all things — at the 
center of human life — at the center of man's 
highest consciousness of life; we call this the 
spiritual or soul-consciousness of life. It 
is the consciousness of the soul within the indi- 
vidual becoming one with, and inseparable 
from, the Great Universal Consciousness — 
the Soul of Things. Therefore, the mind 
living so much in the external things of this 
world when it wearies, turns to the within to 
seek rest and peace. You can use con- 
centration up to a certain degree, but when 
you have reached that degree, then you must 



190 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

enter into another consciousness, otherwise all 
the energy or power will be gone, and you 
will simply be devitalized — leading a mere 
existence on this earth, of little service to 
yourself or to any one else. It is necessary, 
therefore, to enter into this other conscious- 
ness in order to appropriate to yourself the 
spiritual energy and power that comes to 
you through this inner consciousness. Re- 
member, in the outer we are making things; 
we are doing things there; but in the inner 
we are getting the force wherewith to do 
those things. Now, inner desire is necessary, 
not because we are going to please God — not 
because we are going to influence in any way 
the laws of the universe, but rather to bring 
about adjustment, or true relationship be- 
tween the individual mind and the Universal 
Mind. In the outer world we forget pretty 
nearly everything but the self — ^we are work- 
ing for the self, thinking about the self, 
dwelling upon the self; but when we enter 
into the other consciousness, we must leave 
the self behind us — that is, we must leave the 



STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 191 

personal self behind, because the Inner con- 
sciousness has to do with the Universal Self. 

Desire, then, is necessary in order to real- 
ize. Desire or prayer is necessary in order 
to relate us to what we desire — not that we 
are not already related to it in one sense, but 
it Is necessary in order to consciously relate 
us to what we desire. It is of the utmost im- 
portance that we be consciously related to 
God, and also consciously related to 
man. True it is we are all related to God — 
we are all related to man, but unless there Is 
a consciousness of this relation, then we shall 
not act, we shall not live as tho we were 
related either to God or to man. 

Now, we should all desire this Universal 
Consciousness — we all need the consciousness 
of humanity, the consciousness that we are 
one, that we are members one of another, 
that it Is the power of God working within 
each one of us to will and to do. In order 
that, through the recognition of this power 
we may come into still greater power and 
wisdom. 



192 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

The first step, then, Is desire, or what we 
term *'prayer." This Is not so much a ques- 
tion of words, for words, after all, merely 
stand as symbols for something greater than 
words. In themselves they are but little things. 
No one can make an effectual prayer through 
words alone. Repeating over and over In the 
mind certain set phrases does not constitute 
prayer. In fact, has nothing to do with prayer. 
Words may take form In the mind, but can 
never constitute the reality. The Ideal that 
we hold Is the great reality — the great reality 
Is the consciousness of God In the life. 

"But," you ask, 'Vhat do you mean by the 
'consciousness of God' In the life? What is 
this consciousness?" 

Jesus said: "God Is love." Then, the 
more the soul has of this power of God 
— this love of God (and the love of God, 
remember. Is the love of anything, and every- 
thing that is good. We are also told that 
all things are good, and that we can neither 
add to nor take from anything that God has 
ever made), the more Godlike It becomes, 



STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 193 

the more it Is able to enter Into this "con- 
sciousness of God." 

Again, through this Inner consciousness 
comes a condition which we call ''feeling," 
for want of a better word. We might call It 
"spirit," but we are all conscious of It as 
feeling — we are all conscious of the feeling 
of hope, of joy; so there Is this consciousness 
of "feeling;" and we know. If we stop to 
think, that this consciousness of feeling Is an 
unplcturable thing — that no matter how hard 
we may try to express It through spoken 
words, we are unable to do so to any marked 
degree, for it transcends all thought and all 
spoken word. It Is something greater, be- 
cause it is really the presence of God In the 
life of man. It Is this presence which gives 
us the one true inspiration of life, and all the 
differentiations of this spirit, which expresses 
itself through faith, hope, joy, and Innu- 
merable other states of feeling. All these 
are but varying states of the love of God In 
the life of man. 

Now Divine Love is the power which ani- 



194 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

mates everything, whether it be a human be- 
ing, or whether It be the lowest form of life, 
It existed, remember, before mind exists, 
or that part which thinks and reasons and 
forms judgments. Feeling existed long be- 
fore, because It Is the real dynamic power; 
mind comes later, as something which will 
help to give expression to that power. You 
know, if one is inspired by any great feeling, 
one's thoughts take shape after that feeling, 
and one's works, too, are patterned after It. 
So, we see, at the center of life Is this pres- 
ence of God. We are told In the Scriptures 
to "feel after God." There is no other way 
of knowing God, save through the God In us ; 
the spirit of love — the spirit of faith and of 
hope In us, these bring us In touch with the 
Great Universal Spirit of love and faith and 
hope. There Is no other way of coming in 
touch with God. We can not think or reason 
about God. If we should undertake to do 
so, every one of us would have a different 
conception of Him — no two of us could have 
the same conception of God. Each of us 



STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 195 

would work out our God according to our 
own ideas of what is wise and true, and 
we should have many Gods among us. But, 
when we revert to the question of '^ feeling 
after God," remember, the joy in one life 
is just the same as the joy in another life; 
the faith in one life is just the same as the 
faith in another life; the only question can 
be the one of degree of development. We 
could never understand another person's God 
that had been thought and reasoned out; but 
we can all understand the God that we have 
been "feeling after," through the spirit that 
is within us. 

This, then, is the coming of that condition 
which we call oneness, where we begin to 
have the consciousness of Universal Life. 
'^Of myself," said Jesus, "I can do nothing. 
The Father working within me, He doeth 
the work." This Is the recognition of the 
Universal Power. Christ had the full con- 
sciousness of that Power which worked with- 
in Him to will and to do, we never find Him 
assuming any personal power, but only this 



196 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Power of God that was resident and ever 
present In His own life or soul. 

We want, then, to acquire power. First 
of all there is a desire to know more of 
God; then comes, later, the letting go of the 
desire — the ceasing to think at all. Did you 
ever try to still your thoughts? Have you 
ever been able to make your mind thoroughly 
passive to the Universal Will that is within 
you ? Have you ever been able to enter into 
your closet and shut out all the material 
world with Its distractions? The Master 
said: "Enter thy closet and shut thy door." 
That is, enter into the spiritual consciousness 
of life and shut out the consciousness of form 
— the consciousness of material things — and 
there commune with God. And He con- 
tinues: ''And the Father, which seeth in 
secret, shall reward thee openly." Now, 
there is an open reward in the sense that 
the individual who is able to do this, comes 
out of this state of meditation, or communion 
with God, filled with power and the desire to 
use that power; because when we are feeling 



STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 197 

splendidly strong and well, we are not satis- 
fied unless we are using the strength and 
power that Is within us. So, the reward 
comes openly — we are able to express In a 
stronger and truer way than we have ever 
exprest before, and the expression of what 
we have been able to do Is the real reward. 
No one Is ever satisfied In this world, nor 
can be so — It Is not In the nature of things 
that he should be — If he Is not bringing 
something to the world — If he Is not giving 
out of his fulness to the world. Not only 
does the world exact this of us, but we our- 
selves find that such giving Is necessary for 
our own self-development. We can not store 
up anything In the physical organism and 
hope to retain that energy through doing 
nothing. Some people deceive themselves by 
thinking that it Is possible to get a great deal 
and give nothing, or but little. Some time 
they will awaken from this dream, and will 
see they can receive only as they give. 

So, through meditation we acquire power, 
and through concentration we use that power. 



198 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

One Is just as essential as the other, because 
unless we use concentration In our efforts In 
this world, we are cutting off the source of 
supply. Energy Is given us only to use, and 
If we refrain from using It, then we are just 
so much the worse off. Some people will say 
that they can do but little, that they have not 
great minds, and they can not do the things 
the great minds can do, and so they feel dis- 
couraged over the outlook. But there Is 
nothing to be discouraged about. Remember, 
we are all In different stages of evolution, 
and that any one of us can take up his work, 
whether It be little or great, and carry It on, 
and through carrying It on, come Into a 
larger work. We have In our own hands 
the decision as to what that work shall even- 
tually be, but we shall succeed, remember, 
only through the use of the power we have 
acquired, and through such use will come the 
real success of life. We can all make our 
lives what we will to make them. We can 
find what we are best adapted for In life, 
and then set our minds to the accomplish- 



STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 199 

ment of a given end. . I think that every one 
should have some object in view — that we 
should all be building our castles in the air, 
because every castle must first be built there. 
It is built in mind before ever it has a 
physical foundation. The visible foundation 
comes later, but the castle is first a plan in 
mind; the material expression follows after. 
If any one has in mind fixt ideals of what he 
wants to be and of what he wants to do, and 
will keep right on, knowing that he is being 
and that he is doing, then will come the ful- 
filment of his plan in life. But if people 
simply build castles in the air and leave them 
there, then such castles will never amount to 
anything. We must plan, we must feel, we 
must think, we must work, and by doing all 
this unitedly, we shall succeed, we shall ex- 
press our desire, no matter what it is — 
whether it is what the world calls little or 
great; if we are doing each thing in the 
best possible way, then we are preparing the 
life for a still greater thing. If it is a great 
thing, then it requires our untiring energy, 



200 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

it requires the full concentration of our 
thought, it requires all the power that we can 
get through meditation in order to express 
it. Each and every one of us is doing a 
little something to hasten the Kingdom of 
God on earth ; we are bringing that kingdom 
a little nearer when we are getting power 
from within and using that power in the 
without; we are, in fact, making a better 
world in which to live. The process of cre- 
ation is going on, and it is thus that God is 
using every personality to express through 
that personality something of the Kingdom 
of God on Earth. 



Chapter X 
Cause and Effect 



CAUSE AND EFFECT 

"Canst thou minister to a mind diseased?" 

— Shakespeare. 

The law which demonstrates that force 
displays itself by working from within, out- 
ward, Is the only rational explanation of the 
visible world. The form exprest by force is 
of no significance In our comprehension of 
the law. If followed from its origin, out- 
ward, it will be recognized as but a sign or 
symbol corresponding to the thought within. 

If the human body corresponds to the 
mind within, does It fairly represent it? Or 
must we take into consideration the tension, 
resistance, and pressure of other things and 
conditions without? Such influences are Im- 
pelled chiefly by human thought. We live 
in an atmosphere of thought-currents, of 
thought-vibrations. Unless, by the law of 
correspondence, there be that within our own 
mentality that corresponds to this disturbing 

203 



204 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

thought-influence of others, no reflex action Is 
possible from within to the human body 
without. Hence we are the arbiters of our 
own destiny. We must place ourselves In 
perfect harmony with the law, and build our 
house upon a foundation of rock. Even the 
effect of antenatal thought-influence upon the 
mentality of a child (evidenced upon its 
body) can be overcome by knowledge and 
practise of this law. Happiness may trans- 
figure a countenance of very ordinary 
appearance to one of beauty. Where there 
is beauty of form, interior harmony or 
beauty of thought must exist to some ex- 
tent. Perhaps for generations some peculiar- 
ly harmonious quality of mind has asserted 
itself, and, unconsciously adapting Itself to 
the law, has produced the outer expression 
of a beautiful being. In turn, such beings, 
by cultivating discord and inharmony through 
adverse thought-action, can change their ap- 
pearance and that of their posterity to im- 
perfection. In each soul, however, lies dor- 
mant the power to surmount these conditions, 



CAUSE AND EFFECT 205 

to free itself from the shackles placed upon it 
by other and stronger minds, to assert its 
sovereignty, and to blossom under the sun- 
light of true thought into the bodily expres- 
sion of a perfectly ordered mind. Therefore, 
we can not altogether hold others responsible 
for the effects of untrue thought-action upon 
either our minds or our bodies. 

The principle of correspondence between 
mind and body is based as follows: Man is 
heaven within, earth without. The Divine 
spark dwells at the very center of his being. 
His garment of clay, which is the outer mani- 
festation of his being, belongs to all that is 
external in creation. Man unites within him- 
self two worlds — the outer and the inner ; but 
one law acts through both. The outer is the 
general sequence of the inner, which is the 
vital spark, the enduring nature of man. All 
growth proceeds from this inner man. The 
outer is, of itself, nothing, that is, It is en- 
tirely dependent on the inner being. Every 
change that affects it is the result either of 
growth or of lack of growth. The body of 



206 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Man is at best but a transitory manifestation 
or expression of his mind and soul. 

These two entities, the outer and the inner, 
appear to be separate; but they have a very 
real connection. The true correspondence 
of any outward condition is to be found only 
through a knowledge of its inner representa- 
tive. The whole visible creation is but an 
expression of thought. All outward mani- 
festation is but the symbol, or clothing, of 
thought, which is constantly shaping for it- 
self new apparel. Man derives all knowl- 
edge, at first, through the medium of sym- 
bols. All spiritual teachers have, in the 
past, used symbols as a means of instruc- 
tion. The spiritual plane is the plane of 
causes; the physical plane is the plane of re- 
sults. Everything material proceeds from a 
spiritual cause. The process is, first, the 
forming of spiritual thought in the mind of 
man; secondly, the consequent direct result 
of spiritual thought. Everything begins and 
ends in the being of man, who is an embodi- 
ment of the Spirit of God. 



CAUSE AND EFFECT 207 

The conditions of material life are tran- 
sitory and changeable. Their forms lead 
from, and return to, the spiritual. This is 
the mystery of life; a process with an ever- 
changing form, visible in all things — 
whether of the mineral, vegetable or animal 
kingdom. "One state is swiftly succeeded 
by another; there is no permanent state or 
condition of form."* 

Let us now consider the intimate relation- 
ship that exists between matter and spirit — 
body and mind. Mental healing has fully 
demonstrated that the imaging faculty of 
man is responsible for all the ills from which 
he suffers. One disease is no more imaginary 
than another. Everything we do or think 
must first be imaged in the mind; hence, 
everything in the intellectual and physical 
man may be said to proceed from the imag- 
ing faculty. Our thoughts are first ideated, 
then exprest outwardly. The expression must 
correspond to the inner thought. If this is 

*Spencer: "Direction of Motion." 



208 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

inflamed, inflammation will make itself felt 
in the body. If a person is given to think- 
ing harsh, unkind thoughts, or saying cruel, 
cutting things — if he is sarcastic in his re- 
marks — it will certainly be found that this 
mental state has produced neuralgia; or if 
he is sensitive to the unkind remarks of 
others, the suffering experienced inwardly will 
express itself outwardly in neuralgic pains. 

There is a fourfold action between mind 
and body that should be understood. The 
primary cause for everything originates in 
the mind, and thence works outwardly. First, 
the mind acts; this is followed, in turn, by a 
responsive action of blood and muscles ; then 
comes mental reaction, which is followed by 
physical reaction — the body thus responding 
to the ever-varying moods of the mind. Con- 
sider as an illustration the action of anger. 
We know that this is a mental emotion, but 
note its instantaneous effect upon the heart, 
blood, and muscles. The heated and con- 
tracted mental state produces a corresponding 
physical state; and, according to the laws of 



CAUSE AND EFFECT 209 

being, the excessive action produces a corre- 
sponding reaction. When this reaction takes 
place, there is a decided lowering of tone in 
the mental condition of the angry person, 
which is inevitably followed by a weakened 
state of the body. This law applies equally 
to emotions other than anger. 

For everything real in life, there is an un- 
real semblance, which is its contradiction. 
For every true emotion that enters the mind 
from the soul, there is a simulacrum that 
acts on the mind from without, producing a 
false emotion, which, in turn, tends to de- 
stroy the physical organism. One builds up; 
the other tears down. One works from the 
inner, outward, while in the other this action 
is reversed. True emotion is caused by the 
inner spiritual impulse; its contradiction is 
caused by persons or conditions external to 
the personality. 

Wherever mental contraction Is found, 
you will find its physical correspondence. 
Muscular contraction is often caused by 
sorrow for loss of friends, or of money. 



210 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Wherever loss is felt to a marked degree, 
corresponding contraction takes place in the 
body. Muscular rheumatism frequently re- 
sults from grief for the loss of friends. 
Paralysis is usually caused by mental shock. 
It may be regarded as a withdrawal of the 
life forces, i. e., the blood, no longer flow- 
ing naturally throughout the body, fails to 
carry sufficient nourishment. Paralysis may 
be caused by different kinds of mental shock 
— anything that strikes deeply into the life of 
the individual. A failure in business often 
causes paralysis, the lower limbs in that case 
being affected to a great degree. The limbs 
correspond to the sustaining power; and 
through the loss of money, the personality 
believes the sustaining power to be with- 
drawn. Sometimes, without shock, when the 
rest of the body seems perfectly well, the 
limbs lose their power of locomotion and re- 
fuse to carry the body. This is usually caused 
by the sudden loss of friends or others upon 
whom the person was dependent, or by the 
loss of worldly goods. The true sustaining 



CAUSE AND EFFECT 211 

power — the power that will sustain In any 
or every emergency — Is to be found in the 
"One Source of Life," the only power that 
sustains us eternally. 

All the different senses have their inner 
correspondences. We see with our minds, 
and according to our mental vision will be 
our physical sight. A person with very little 
mentality may see clearly at a great distance 
as well as near at hand; but, with regard to 
this and all other faculties, the plane to which 
the person belongs should be considered. 
Comparatively little Is required of a person 
on the animal plane of existence., Obedience 
to the law on that plane Is the only thing 
necessary; therefore, one who has advanced 
no further might be remarkably healthy 
physically, without showing a much higher 
order of Intelligence than that displayed by 
an animal. But even on that plane It Is 
necessary to have all the wisdom of the ani- 
mal kingdom; thus, throughout all the vary- 
ing planes of thought, the outer form must 
ever respond to the Inner thought. 



212 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Those who are ''far-sighted" will be found 
to have some condition of mind correspond- 
ing to that weakness. A careful examination 
will show that, regarding things apart from 
themselves, they can see clearly. Possibly 
they are interested in the welfare, habits or 
customs of other nations; but concerning 
surrounding conditions and people they are 
blind, or form but a weak conception. A 
correspondence may be found between family 
neglect and this condition. The opposite con- 
dition, near-sightedness — whereby people see 
objects near at hand distinctly, but very in- 
distinctly those at a distance — finds its corre- 
spondence in thoughts confined too closely to 
family matters and an immediate circle of 
friends — thoughts that give but little, If any, 
attention to outside matters. Very often the 
conditions are inherited — the thoughts of the 
parents have left an impress on the mind of 
the child, and the latter, not having learned 
how to overcome these parental conditions, 
continues In the same line of thought. 

We should all see clearly, both at a dis- 



CAUSE AND EFFECT 213 

tance and near at hand. In recognizing im- 
mediate duties, we should not be unmindful 
of the fact that we are members of one 
family; that each part of the human race 
is essential to all other parts, and vice versa. 
When our sight becomes clouded, and we see 
objects but dimly, we may become cognizant 
of the correspondence if we examine our own 
mental state. We are sure to recognize a de- 
cided limitation in our mental vision, and if 
we remove this condition, our physical sight 
will quickly correspond, become improved, 
and in time fully restored. 

A change of sight attributed to advancing 
years proceeds from an altered train of 
thought. With most persons the eyesight is 
better in youth and early manhood than in 
middle age. There are periods in life when 
the sight certainly changes. Dimness of vision 
occurring at middle age corresponds to a lack 
of mental perception regarding many things 
that were thought to have been clearly under- 
stood in the past. Instead of each day add- 
ing new clearness to our mental percep- 



214 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

tion, we find our ideas becoming more 
vague; we do not rely upon our own view, 
but resort to other means to have the sub- 
ject placed more clearly before us. These 
methods correspond to sight derived from 
without, rather than from within; from 
books and from the minds of others, rather 
than from our own. Occasionally, aged 
people experience a renewal of sight; this 
corresponds to an awakening of the spiritual 
powers within — to the inner perception of 
the way, the truth and the life. 

Many persons are said to hear better with 
one ear than with the other. This is easily 
explained. Some people care to hear only 
one side of a question — that on which their 
sympathies are enlisted; they are not willing 
to hear both sides. Again, there are persons 
who do not wish to be disturbed by having 
to listen to a recital of the sorrows of others. 
They consider it an advantage not to have 
their conscience ruffled by the knowledge that 
such misfortunes exist; accordingly, they 
close their ears, harden their hearts, and go 



CAUSE AND EFFECT 215 

through the world in total disregard of the 
welfare of their fellow-men. 

The relationship between the blood and its 
circulation is of great interest; for the blood 
symbolizes the Principle of Life, which is in 
all and through all. Soul-impulses acting on 
the blood produce a healing influence; purity 
of thought begets purity of blood; true 
mental action causes the blood to flow nor- 
mally throughout the body. Conditions act- 
ing on us from the outer world are largely 
responsible for mental impurity and im- 
proper circulation of the blood. A dis- 
turbed circulation can nearly always be at- 
tributed to the unreal emotions. 

One who thinks to excess will find that 
such action produces an untrue movement of 
the blood, causing it to flow unduly to the 
head. The brain demands both rest and 
nourishment. The circulation should tend 
toward one part of the body as much as 
to another. True circulation is developed 
through an even development, so that no one 
faculty shall predominate. All unpleasant 



216 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

emotions have an adverse action on the blood. 
Anger, hate, malice, etc., so poison the blood 
that it can not give the desired nourishment 
to the body. It is not the food we eat, but 
the thoughts we think, that produce Impure 
blood. *'Not that which goeth Into the mouth 
defileth a man," but out of the mind proceed 
evil thoughts, which defile the blood. Keep 
the thoughts pure, and the blood will be cor- 
respondingly pure. Control all unreal, emo- 
tional conditions through the higher under- 
standing. Digest that which is essential to 
your highest welfare, and the mental diges- 
tion will aid the physical; the food eaten 
will digest thoroughly, become assimilated, 
converted into blood, and serve to nourish 
and strengthen the body. A pure, unselfish, 
mental and moral life purifies the physical 
life. Strong thoughts make strong bodies. 



Chapter XI 
Mind and Body 



MIND AND BODY 

There is an exact correspondence be- 
tween mind and body of which any one who 
has carefully and thoughtfully investigated 
the subject must become fully convinced. In 
a study of this correspondence, however, 
many things must be taken into consideration, 
such as temperament, environment, and other 
conditions that tend either to modify or to 
increase physical effects. The bodies of men 
are not to be looked upon as so many auto- 
matic machines, nor is it to be expected that 
each machine should record exactly alike. 
No two minds ever express alike and conse- 
quently there will be found no end of varia- 
tions even when the causes seem to be exactly 
alike. The question of temperament plays a 
remarkable part; with one temperament a 

219 



220 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

mental cause sometimes produces instantane- 
ous physical effect, while the same cause ex- 
isting in the mind of another may not be ex- 
prest for days, weeks, or even months after 
the cause has been set in motion; at least, 
there is no apparent outward expression. The 
physical organism of man is an expression, a 
symbol of what man has felt and thought. 
The body is merely a habitation that soul and 
mind have builded for their own uses and 
purposes, and hence the body can have no 
being apart from soul and mind. It re- 
sponds not only to every thought but to every 
emotion. It is to be viewed in two ways: 
first, as a record of past thought and feeling, 
an outer book in all its complexity of organ- 
ism, function, etc., an outer book of man's 
inner life. In the second place the body 
is the soul's barometer which registers (more 
accurately than any barometer man has 
ever made to register weather conditions) 
his daily, not to say hourly, thoughts and 
emotions which are being constantly regis- 
tered on the body. 



MIND AND BODY 221 

It would require a large book to give any 
adequate or full expression to this law of 
correspondence between mind and body. In 
a chapter, one at best can hardly outline or 
offer suggestions for those who would make 
a study of this law. What follows is more in 
the nature of a generalization, but I hope it 
will prove of sufficient value to awaken a de- 
sire in the mind of the reader for a greater 
knowledge and a deeper study of the under- 
lying or fundamental laws of life. 

Materialists in the past have thought of 
brain and mind as being almost synonymous 
terms, that thought was a production of the 
brain; but elements have no power in and 
of themselves to think man's thought, and 
yet, that the brain is the best vehicle which 
man can use in connection with his thinking, 
goes without saying. For, while mind and 
intelligence are not limited to one particular 
organ of the body, the brain is, nevertheless, 
the chief organ of thought and reason. The 
mind has it in Its power to use the brain as 
well as the whole physical organism, and. 



222 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

through so doing, gets beneficial results. To 
exercise the mind is necessary for the growth 
and full development of the brain. Through 
such exercise, brain-cells can be almost, we 
might say, indefinitely developed; and while 
the greater number of brain-cells do not in 
any way increase the intelligence, yet because 
they are a result of thought in action, they 
stand as the symbol or the expression of 
greater intelligence. The right use of this 
organ of the body comes through clear, con- 
cise thought-picturing, and when the mind is 
not disturbed by superficial emotion, or when 
the concentration is sufficient to keep the 
mind centered on what it is thinking about 
and the hands busy on what they are doing, 
we have an ideal action of the mind. If to 
this we add something of peace, hope, joy, 
or other of the inner emotions, we have the 
ideal condition of mental poise which will 
produce true brain-action. What is needed 
is the equilibrium which is always to be found 
between extremes. One person may be so re- 
laxed and negative in his thinking that he 



MIND AND BODY 223 

will derive little, if any, results from it, while 
another may think so intensely that whatever 
results he obtains are paid for by loss of 
mental and physical vitality. Negative 
thoughts and feelings lead in no way to 
increase of cellular development. Intense 
thought or emotion makes more for destruc- 
tion in cell-development than for any real 
creation. Poise, equilibrium in thought and 
feeling, is what all must learn to cultivate if 
they desire to have this organ of mind 
function in a way to fulfil its perfect office. 
Anger, worry, anxiety, fear, intense thinking, 
etc., etc., are all prolific causes of disturbed 
brain-action and are exprest through conges- 
tion, headache, and pains. The fact is, that 
all undue or abnormal action of the mind 
finds its exact correspondence in physical con- 
ditions. Intense thinking produces something 
more than a mere wear of tissue ; It produces 
a destruction of brain-cells. 

Remember, that the body has no power to 
feel or to act of its own volition, altho it is 
sensitive and responds quickly to every true 



2M SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

or false thought or emotion. Excess of 
mental action Is followed In turn by excess of 
physical action, because nature Is everywhere 
seeking to establish equilibrium. After the 
excess of action there follows, first, mental 
reaction and then physical reaction. This 
can be easily discerned, say. In the case of 
anger. First the mind Is angry and heated; 
then the body becomes contracted and heated ; 
later comes a relaxed condition of mind 
wherein clear thinking very largely ceases, 
followed In turn by a weak or devitalized 
condition of the body. This action and re- 
action of mind and body explains the whole 
working of the law of correspondence; first, 
mental action followed by physical action; 
secondly, mental reaction and, as a conse- 
quence, physical reaction. The body is the 
instrument of the mind. The mind plays 
upon that body as it wills to play. There 
Is absolutely no escape from this position. 
Our Ills are all of our own making. Mental 
causes produce physical effects, not one or 
some, but all, physical effects. The body is 



MIND AND BODY 225 

what the mind makes it, whether it be strong 
and whole, or weak and diseased. One 
should so learn to possess and to control 
one's own thoughts that in all thinking 
there would be no mental tension. Then 
there would be no congestion of blood in the 
head, no heated head with its consequent 
headaches. The slightest pain that a person 
feels in any part of the head should be to 
him an indication that he is not using his 
mind in a true way. 

Will is Universal. Each thing and each 
person to the degree of their life and intelli- 
gence can have sufficient will for all true ac- 
tion. Will is always in evidence when there 
is concentration of mind, and will is necessary 
to everything we do in life. Every part of 
man's physical organism must respond to 
will and nowhere is this more self-evident 
than in the neck, arms, and hands. Indeed, 
we might almost say that the arms and hands 
are the chief executive organs of the will, to 
give full and complete expression to what 
man desires to do. A stiff neck is the indi- 



226 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

cation of a perverse or rebellious will, or, I 
might say, the direction of the will by the 
mind into wrong channels of expression. The 
true action of the will Is exhibited in strength 
of neck, arms, and hands. The reverse of 
this is true when people are lacking in mental 
concentration. Still another manifestation 
of the power of will is shown in holding the 
body habitually erect and well-poised. One 
can best cultivate will through concentration 
of mind. There may be stubbornness or per- 
verseness of will without mental concentra- 
tion, but there can be no full development of 
will when one's mind is not centered, when 
there is dissipation of thought and energy. 
Will in its last analysis is an Involuntary ac- 
tion In the life. Used in the true way it Is 
continually becoming a greater force for all 
true expression. It Is the divine prerogative 
of man, when his life is adjusted to divine 
law and order, to become what he wills to 
become not in one thing or many, but in all 
things that go to make the strong, self- 
reliant, perfected life. In whatever one does 



MIND AND BODY 227 

one should use concentration of thought, and 
concentration means becoming thoroughly In- 
terested In whatever one is doing. The per- 
son who Is In love with his work will always, 
while engaged In doing It, have his mind 
thoroughly centered upon It. 

The body has Its bellows for drawing In 
and exhaling the atmosphere necessary for Its 
phy-slcal existence. The lungs. In one re- 
spect, resemble the blacksmith's bellows In 
causing the fire to flame. We are told that 
the more oxygen we take from the atmos- 
phere by the use of the lungs, the greater 
win be the burning up of the carbon that Is 
in the system. But like the blacksmith's 
bellows, the lungs have no power to act In 
and of themselves. They are only organs on 
which soul and mind act. All true action, 
coming from true thought and feeling, will 
go to the upbuilding and strengthening of 
these vital organs of the body. Man is far 
from using the full capacity of his lungs. If 
he were using his lungs as they should be 
used, coughs, colds, congestions, and all other 



228 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

lung troubles would be unknown. At the 
best, men and women are not using one-third 
of their lung capacity. But how are we go- 
ing to use the lungs to their full capacity? 
When the mind Is peaceful and restful, when 
the higher emotions are the animating forces 
in life. It will be found that there is a rhyth- 
mic, deep breath both in its outflow and In- 
flow, and that desire produces a marked In- 
fluence in Its action upon the lungs, for the 
lungs correspond in one way to our aspira- 
tions. The outgoing breath corresponds to 
the aspiration, the desire that exists In the 
mind; the Incoming breath to the inspiration 
or the fulfilment of desire. In proportion 
as man has strong aspiration or desire will 
he exhale fully and freely; and to the de- 
gree that he Is able to exhale, will he receive 
without effort on his part the Incoming at- 
mosphere. Through the out-breath a vacuum 
is created and the air must of necessity flow 
in. There Is a passage in the New Testa- 
ment which reads: "God is more willing to 
give than we are to receive." This passage 



MIND AND BODY 229 

Is Illustrated by breath, in that we must put 
forth a certain mental and muscular effort 
to exhale, but the inhaling is done without 
either. Inspiration Is a response to desire. 
Desire that has to do with the highest motive 
and the deepest feeling tends to bring us 
into closest relationship with all that we de- 
sire. Desire may be likened to a magnet 
that attracts to it all that Is in any way 
kindred to it. The highest desire and the 
deepest feeling bring us into right relation- 
ship with all that we most require. All 
things are ours, but the self makes the ad- 
justment, whereby we enter Into the posses- 
sion of them. Take the question of breath, 
for Instance; only as we learn to exhale the 
air In the body In a very thorough manner 
can we Inhale to the same degree. The ex- 
haling Is done with effort; we create a 
vacuum and the air will flow in naturally and 
without effort. Such a course of action tends 
to strengthen the lungs, because It Is only 
through the perfect use of every function of 
the body that It Is kept whole and strong. 



230 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Through the lack of true use, the lungs be- 
come weakened and in time the whole body 
becomes diseased, because each organ of the 
body stands in such close relation to all the 
other organs that what affects any part for ill, 
in some degree affects all parts. This is not- 
ably the case with the lungs. The more one 
can breathe in, the more the whole body is 
benefited by it. Any one can test the truth 
of these theories for themselves, that they 
are all susceptible of demonstration, but to 
derive benefit from them one must use them. 
If people wish to establish strong rhythmic 
breathing, they will accomplish that end in 
the most enduring way through true feeling 
and high thinking. Mind causes every posi- 
tion the body takes. Keep the body erect, 
and the lungs will be in a better position to 
do their share of the work in keeping the 
physical organisms whole and strong. 

For many ages the heart has symbolized 
the love nature. The heart is ceaselessly at 
work, sending to every part of the physical 
organism the life-fluid, or the blood. This 



MIND AND BODY 231 

builds up and replaces all the waste that is 
continually going on throughout the whole 
physical organism. Love is the greatest 
power In the Universe. It may be said to be 
the source from which all else flows. All 
attributes of soul, all faculties of mind, are 
but differentiations of a Supreme Love that 
Is "In all, through all, and above all.'' Dif- 
ferent organs of the body represent in an 
outer way the souFs attributes and the mind's 
faculties. All love that is real or true in the 
life of man, strengthens the heart in Its ac- 
tion, so that It is able to fulfil its perfect mis- 
sion in carrying strength and nourishment to 
every part of the physical organism. The 
contradictory condition which expresses Itself 
in emotional hate or jealousy Is destructive 
to all true heart-action. When the heart is 
acted upon by the greatest Impulse of life, it 
can never become weakened or in any way 
diseased, but will continue faithfully to per- 
form its service to the end. All false emo- 
tions, such as anger, hate, or jealousy are 
destructive of true heart-action. 



2S2 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

The esoteric meaning of the word blood 
is Life. "He hath made of one blood (of 
one life) all people who do dwell on the face 
of the earth." And we are told in Holy 
Writ that without the shedding of blood 
there is no remission of sins, that is, without 
dying to the old life there is no living to the 
new. "The blood of Christ cleanseth us 
from all sin," that is, the life of Christ, when 
lived by any individual, cleanseth from all 
sin. Blood, therefore, symbolizes life; the 
life that consciously realizes its oneness with 
the Source of all Life ; the Life that draws 
its inspiration from within, knowing that 
there is a Universal Will and Intelligence ever 
guiding and directing it, which will express 
itself as purity in physical blood. Upon the 
purity of the blood depends its renewing 
power upon the body. The poisoned or the 
impoverished blood can bring neither health 
nor strength to the physical organism, but 
must carry some of its own poverty and 
poison to every part. The blood becomes 
poisoned by false emotions and evil thoughts. 



MIND AND BODY 233 

Only as the old life Is shed and cast off, can 
the new life, the purified blood, come. The 
poisoned blood is prolific of all kinds of pain- 
ful^diseases. Anger, hate, jealousy, cause, to 
a far greater degree, blood-poisoning than 
perhaps anything or everything else. -The 
excess of action of the heart while one is 
angry, the heating of the blood, the reaction 
which follows to heart and circulation should 
give one some conception of how anger must 
weaken the heart and affect the consequent 
action of the blood. Not only does it do 
this, but it poisons one's mind and this men- 
tal poison in turn is exprest in physical poison 
and the purity of the blood, the life, is de- 
stroyed. The many inflammatory diseases that 
come from poor circulation and poisoned 
blood are simply expressions of inflamed men- 
. tal conditions. The body has no power to pro- 
duce these conditions in and of itself, but 
that which the mind pictures, finds Its ultimate 
expression In and on the body. Man's physical 
condition is an exact expression of what he 
feels and thinks. All weak or diseased con- 



234 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

ditions of the body corresponding to weak or 
diseased states of mind, false emotions, un- 
real, negative thinking — all are destructive in 
their action. The real emotions of love, 
faith, hope, and joy, are all creative; all make 
for the renewing of the mind and the upbuild- 
ing of the body. Strong, positive, true think- 
ing that the true emotions engender, is far 
more productive and creative in its action than 
all the attention we may. give to the upbuild- 
ing of the body by many or by all external 
ways and means. Keep the blood pure by 
keeping the life pure. 

A great deal of energy is required for the 
digestion and assimilation of food. Some- 
times food seems to cause distress and pain 
during digestion, which shows that there is 
not enough energy to grind the food ; the will 
is working only in a partial or an Intermittent ' 
way. One may have been using one's mind 
to a marked degree, and so the energy which 
should be used for disgesting the food has 
been largely transferred to head and brain, 
or else one may have been devitalized through 



MIND AND BODY 235 

negative thinking, so that they have not re- 
ceived sufficient energy for disgestion. Any 
serious mental disturbance will have an aifect 
on digestion, for it is not so much the food 
we eat as it is the state of mind we are in when 
the food is eaten. Digestion is first a mental 
and afterward a physical condition. People 
who fail to use their minds in digesting their 
mental food will sooner or later have the fur- 
ther experience of physical indigestion. The 
mind has been given to us to use. We must 
learn to think and to thoroughly digest and 
assimilate what we think. The person who 
requires the pre-digested food is one who is 
unwilling to think, but requires some one else 
to do his thinking before he can assimilate his 
mental food. Occasionally people use a great 
deal of care in the selection of their physical 
food, but fail to bestow the same amount of 
thought on what they take in as mental food ; 
consequently they do not get the same value 
from the physical food that they otherwise 
would, if they had paid more attention to the 
quality of their mental food. Temperance 



£36 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

in eating and in drinking is necessary, but 
mental temperance is the forerunner of all 
physical temperance. The man who is thor- 
oughly temperate in mind is going to be as 
thoroughly temperate in eating and in drink- 
ing. One should no more gorge mentally than 
physically. All mental food should be selected 
with discrimination. In the physical world 
people will say that some kinds of food are 
wholesome, and others unwholesome, and the 
person who is guided by what he deems wis- 
dom in the matter of physical food should 
also be guided by still greater wisdom in the 
matter of his mental food. It should be 
wholesome; it should make for mental uplift. 
It should help to develop one's thought and 
reason, and to call out one's higher and more 
intuitive nature. Let us learn in a rational 
way to select and thoroughly digest and assimi- 
late our mental food, and we shall have laid 
the foundation for thorough physical diges- 
tion and assimilation. 

To hear people discuss their livers one 
would almost think that the Almighty had 



MIND AND BODY 237 

made a mistake not only in giving man an 
appendix, but in giving him a liver. All kinds 
of ills are attributed to the action of the liver 
and all kinds of remedies are used to over- 
come too active or too inactive livers, too 
much bile or too little. The best medicine 
that any one can use to give a true action to 
liver and bile, is a bright, happy mind. The 
more brightness and happiness one can bring 
to bear upon life, the less trouble one will 
have with one's liver. Solomon was quite 
right when he said that a happy mind did 
more than much medicine. Worry and anxiety 
are disastrous to all true action of the liver; 
gloomy and morbid thinking is a prolific cause 
of biliousness. The person who has been us- 
ing all kinds of material remedies to overcome 
the so-called liver troubles should give them 
all up. Try what a little happiness, bright- 
ness, and joy will do in stirring up the dor- 
mant liver. Let it be remembered, too, that 
that which aids any one organ to fulfil its 
office is to a degree stimulating and revivify- 
ing the whole body. There should be a true 



238 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

adjustment of the soul and mind to sense and 
body, which should make for the good of all. 
The partial use, the partial adjustment is 
better than no use or no adjustment. The 
persevering effort toward all true self-control 
not only rewards one when the full control is 
attained, but brings its reward at the time 
with every achievement, be It small or great, 
that one makes In the acquiring of control. 
Sometimes when people awaken to the neces- 
sity for control and see how much Is needed 
or required of them to attain It, not being able 
to accomplish It all at once, they become 
discouraged. But overcoming Is always a 
gradual process. One gains a little In one di- 
rection and then in another, and the little 
gained is always so much added capital; It 
becomes a permanent part of our being. 
Never rest satisfied with anything short of 
perfect control of mind and body, but remem- 
ber that, in life's upward trend, control Is at- 
tained step by step, and everything we get In 
this world that Is worth while we must work 
for. We are working out a salvation of mind 



MIND AND BODY 239 

and of body; mind from all sense of sin, body 
from all pain and disease. 

Behind the stomach there Is a branch of 
ganglia or nerves reaching out in every direc- 
tion. In the olden time it was known as the 
great sympathetic; to-day, we speak of it as 
the solar plexus. In the future, men will come 
to see and to know that it corresponds to the 
tree of Life, and that the tree of knowledge 
of good and evil Is symbolized by the brain. 
Mind uses the brain as the chief organ of 
thought and reason. In the partial or unde- 
veloped state of the mind it gives relative 
value to forces and things, thereby Introducing 
the diversity of good and evil. Different 
things and persons In different stages of 
growth and development are compared, and 
through comparison, all the varying degrees 
of expression are looked upon as varying de- 
grees of good or of evil. When man, in the 
process of evolution, realizes that all the fruit 
of the tree of knowledge is good, then will he 
lay hold on his tree of Life and partake of its 
fruit and eat, and live forever. 



240 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

At the solar plexus are generated the mag- 
netic and electric fluids that are necessary for 
physical existence. The deepest feeling moves 
this center to healthy action to a greater de- 
gree than anything or everything else. From 
this sun-center of life radiates the force neces- 
sary to bodily existence. Let no one, however, 
be deceived; it is not the mere ganglion, the 
physical solar plexus, that is the cause of Its 
activities ; no, the physical solar plexus Is only 
the chief organ through which the soul acts. 
Every true emotion awakens the activities of 
this center, and with such awakening, life- 
force, energy, is transmitted to all parts of the 
body. With the introduction of false emo- 
tions generated by the mind of man, some- 
thing takes place very like the clouds which 
come between the earth and the sun. The 
light, the warmth, the glow of life is cut off 
and man is seemingly separated from the 
Source of his being, but it is only seemingly. 
The sun shines on irrespective of clouds; the 
soul lives on irrespective of mind's clouds. 
The sun eventually disperses the clouds; the 



MIND AND BODY 241 

influence of the soul is just as certain to dis- 
perse the mental clouds. When one is sick 
at the center, it Is because the clouds of fear, 
sorrow, doubt, gloom, and despair have come 
between one and the Sun of Love that radiates 
faith, hope, peace, and joy; and so, both mind 
and body are apparently sick from center to 
circumference. If a person wishes to have all 
magnetic and electrical energy necessary to a 
strong, healthy mind and body, he must learn 
to use this center by giving of himself to the 
world through loving kindness, faithful per- 
formance, hope-giving assurance, and a con- 
stant radiation of joy and brightness. Such 
a person will become. In the truest and best 
sense, thoroughly magnetic, and the atmos- 
phere about him will be surcharged with life- 
and health-giving properties, so that all who 
are brought Into contact with him will be 
benefited to the degree that they have 
made themselves open for the reception of 
the life-giving forces that are radiating from 
him. 

The stomach is the body^s chemical labo- 



M2 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

ratory wherein, from the food eaten, are se- 
lected all the elements necessary for supply- 
ing new tissue for the upbuilding of the 
physical form. The stomach, in order to per- 
form its full functions, should be free from 
anything of an upsetting nature. Mental 
acidity or bitterness has an exceedingly dis- 
turbing action upon the stomach. When peo- 
ple are very sensitive to wrong thoughts or 
actions, or allow themselves to be disturbed 
by their own or others' emotional natures, a 
disturbance of the stomach ensues, fermenta- 
tion is set up, and from the pressure of the 
gases may come physical pain. It is not neces- 
sary that we should entertain the false 
thoughts or emotions of any one else, but if 
we do so, we are quite sure in the end to ex- 
perience all the evil results that naturally come 
to those who express themselves through false 
thoughts and feelings. Sensitiveness should 
always be an element making for new and bet- 
ter adjustment; not something that proves a 
disturbing influence in life. A sunny disposi- 
tion and a sweet nature with a degree of 



MIND AND BODY MS 

mental poise will help to keep this organ of 
the body functioning in a natural way. 

The kidneys carry off secretions not neces- 
sary in any way to the perfecting of the physi- 
cal form. The kidneys and generative organs 
correspond to man's secret nature. I have said 
elsewhere that for every true expression of 
life you will find a false or a contradictory 
one. There Is a true secrecy wherein many 
things are best kept in one's own mind. When 
the Nazarene said: "Enter thy closet and 
shut thy door, and pray to thy Father; and 
thy Father which heareth thee in secret will 
reward thee openly," He made clear a con- 
dition of mind or soul which could not well 
be shared with any one else. The communion 
with the Father in secret, the entering into the 
secret places of the Most High, is an indi- 
vidual act. There are some things so sacred 
in life that even talking of them serves to take 
away from their sacredness. All the true or 
the real secrecy of life tends to the strength- 
ening of the kidneys ; all the false and unreal 
secrecy tends to weaken and destroy them. 



244 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Covering up or hiding away things that one 
does not wish another to know, is always pro- 
ductive of harmful effects. 

The organs of generation are always 
strengthened through real creative thought 
and true feeling; they are also strengthened 
by mental poise. False emotions engender 
weakness and disease. One must come to look 
at everything in life in the true way. Purity 
of thought and feeling is necessary. to all true 
development. There is a great deal of mock 
modesty in the world. "To the pure all things 
are pure." One can not think, for a single 
instant, of some organs of the body as ex- 
pressing good and of others as expressing evil. 
The good must always come through rightful 
use ; ill must always come through abuse. All 
the organs of the body are fitted together to 
represent the whole, the perfect body. All 
have their relative value. Attributes of soul 
and faculties of mind bring about the perfect 
functioning of every organ of the body. 

The legs correspond to the sustaining 
power. Sometimes we place that sustaining 



MIND AND BODY 245 

power in material things ; sometimes we place 
it in other personalities. The only sustaining 
power that abides is the presence of God in 
the life of each individual. People and things 
are sometimes necessary props until greater 
realization of the sustaining power of God 
enters into the life. The person who relies 
on anything less than this power will, sooner 
or later, find all his props removed in order 
that he may come to rely on the One and 
Only Source, the Power that comforts, 
strengthens, sustains when all else fails. 

The feet correspond to the understanding. 
Thought and reason are not necessarily under- 
standing. We may think and reason and yet 
not know. Understanding is real knowledge, 
and the life must find its foundation in nothing 
short of true understanding. That under- 
standing which shows to man his true rela- 
tionship to God, that he is the child of an All- 
Loving, All-Merciful, All-Powerful, Ever- 
Present, Father-Mother God, and that he is 
related to humanity as a part, or an organ, of 
, its grand body; that his neighbor is himself 



246 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

just In the same sense as any one organ of the 
body is related to all the other organs; that 
there never has been, and never can be, any 
separation between his life and the life of all 
the rest of humanity, between what he calls 
his Individual life and mind and soul, and the 
great Universal Life and Mind and Soul; 
that he Is one with every part, and that he Is 
one with the Whole. This Is the true under- 
standing ; this will strengthen the feet of man 
as he treads the great pathway of life. 

Clear seeing and acute hearing are necessary 
to true understanding. Improve the mental 
vision by seeing everything In a clear way ; 
seeing clearly at a distance and seeing clearly 
near at hand. Listen to the still small voice. 
Develop the true hearing whereby one can be 
guided Into the way of all truth. See aright; 
hear aright; understand aright; and the whole 
life will be filled with that wisdom that Is 
necessary to a life founded and grounded on 
the eternal laws of God. In doing this, there 
will come the true responsive action In physical 
sight and physical hearing. Dimness of vision 



MIND AND BODY 247 

will be overcome ; deafness will be done away 
with. Realize that every physical organ re- 
sponds to mental action ; realize that you can 
make your body what you will to make It. 
Use every attribute of soul, use every faculty 
of mind, and the whole body will grow strong, 
whole, and complete because of such use. 



Chapter XII 
Thought- Picturing 



THOUGHT-PICTURING 

The source of ideals is In the soul of 
man. Mind Is an outgrowth of the soul, as 
body Is an outgrowth of the mind; It Is that 
aspect of being which relates man to the world 
of form. The limitations of mind may be 
more clearly defined than Is generally sup- 
posed. In every phase of action it deals with 
form ; so that every thought conceived by man 
Images Itself in his mind. Indeed, among all 
man's mental faculties this power of imaging 
Is chief, and it may truly be said that every 
thought we think contains within itself a 
picture, and, further, that these thought- 
pictures affect the body either for health and 
strength or for weakness and disease. 

We are then acted upon in two ways — by 
the force of life within and by the forms of 
life without; hence It may be said that man 

251 



252 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

lives in two worlds. Besides the material con- 
sciousness of life, there is also a spiritual con- 
sciousness. There is something within man 
which transcends his sense-nature, and even 
his intellectual and reasoning powers — some- 
thing that reaches far deeper into the inner 
consciousness of life, which we might de- 
nominate the intuitive (spiritual) faculty. It 
was to that "something" that the Apostle 
Paul referred, when he said: "For the word 
of God is quick and powerful, and sharper 
than any two-edged sword, piercing even to 
the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of 
the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of 
the thoughts and intent of the heart." 
(Heb., iv:i2.) That is the Word of God 
that is trying to make itself felt in the lives 
of men — the Word that became fully mani- 
fested in the life of Jesus the Christ. 

As man listens to the voice of the Higher 
coming from this inner consciousness of life, 
he has a sense of being related to everything. 
This inner feeling makes him desirous of do- 
ing good to all; it has the effect of causing 



THOUGHT-PICTURING 253 

him to see things in their true relations, so that 
his mind becomes filled with the harmonies of 
life ; and these thoughts pictured in the mind 
produce, in turn, mental harmony and health 
and strength of body. 

The abstract qualities of faith, hope, and 
love, while unpicturable in and of themselves, 
have yet the effect of becoming associated 
with the forms of life; so that the mind, be- 
ing acted upon by these soul-impulses, images 
only things harmonious and beautiful. Then, 
again, there is the action on the mind from 
the world without. We find that here the 
unity of life is lost sight of; and the mind 
of man, having many things of seemingly 
opposite natures to contend with, questions 
the good and evil of these varying conditions. 
Many of these states produce In the mind 
feelings of resentment, avarice, anger, hate, 
etc.; In fact, all the evil emotions that affect 
the mind come from seeing things In wrong 
relationship to one another. They all come 
from the outer world — from things that seem 
discordant and evil. 



254 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Now, the external world is not to be viewed 
as evil ; nothing is evil in and of itself. Evil 
is the result of the false imaginings we indulge 
in ; it is our partial way of considering things ; 
it is a reversal of the true method of thinking, 
which works from the inner outward. 

As all the different mental conditions ema- 
nate from the imaging faculty, by its proper 
control and direction we may achieve results 
in every way beneficial. In its true develop- 
ment we will find certain processes to be of 
great assistance. If we form the mental image 
after the true impulse, which enters the mind 
from the soul, the picture will be more nearly 
perfect than that which comes solely from ex- 
ternal surroundings. Love for things pure 
and beautiful is first an inner state; but this 
will inevitably find its perfect correspondence 
in the world without. This applies to both 
persons and things. The abstract must asso- 
ciate itself with the concrete; but the abstract 
exists first. It would not be possible to con- 
vey by any mental image the idea of love to a 
mind that had never felt its influence ; neither 



THOUGHT-PICTURING ^55 

could we make known the qualities of faith 
and hope, through word-pictures, to a mind 
that had never felt them. These are soul feel- 
ings, which transcend all mental action. 

Two words may be used to express states 
of consciousness that act in very different 
ways upon the Imaging faculty. These words 
are feeling and emotion. The former Is used in 
a sense that refers to such qualities as faith, 
hope, and love, or that which enters the mind 
from the soul. The latter Is that unreal 
state or condition produced by outward 
causes — persons or environment. 

It is noticeable that the most exalted and 
sublime human feelings are not the result of 
outside Influences, but proceed from the im- 
pulses within the soul. On the other hand, 
the lowest and most degraded sentiment is at- 
tributable either to other persons or to exter- 
nal conditions. Take, for Instance, the action 
of a true Impulse upon the heart ; It causes the 
blood to circulate more evenly and vigorously 
throughout the whole system. When the cir- 
culation Is Imperfect, It proves that the super- 



256 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

ficial emotions rather than the true Impulses 
are the directing forces. Emotions are caused 
by selfishness; they are of a personal char- 
acter. Impulses are caused by the higher na- 
ture of man, and are of a universal character. 
Consider the action of emotions on the 
stomach. This organ is affected by every- 
thing In the outer world, and especially by our 
environment and the people with whom we 
associate; thus, when the mind becomes filled 
with bitterness toward persons or conditions, 
we find the physical expression of acidity in 
the stomach. Consider, also, the action of 
faith and trust on the liver and spleen. It 
renders their functions normally active, while 
worry and anxiety, which are emotions pro- 
ceeding from external causes, always occasion 
the reverse. The majority of people attribute 
biliousness and other so-called liver troubles 
to Improper food and drink, asserting that 
there Is a reflex action upon the mind that pro- 
duces despondency and gloom. But is It ma- 
terial what a man eats or drinks; Is he not 
superior to all exterior conditions? Relieve 



THOUGHT-PICTURING 257 

the mind of a bilious person from anxiety and 
worry, and fill it with hope and trust — let his 
surroundings and actions be bright and cheer- 
ful — and a healthy physical condition will re- 
sult. It may be difficult at first to bring this 
about; but persistency until the habit is 
formed will soon cause the mind to become 
related to all other hopeful minds, and in the 
end it will be easier to continue in the new 
mental conditions than to revert to the old. 

The spiritual consciousness, as has already 
been said, imparts the thought of the unity 
of life — that all force and all intelligence are 
one, and that, therefore, every form must 
necessarily be an expression of the inner force. 
Thus, we should carry the thought of unity 
into the outer world, and see things in their 
true proportions — by reasoning from cause to 
effect. Consciousness of material life, losing 
sight of the whole and dealing with everything 
in part, sees nothing but diversity; all sense of 
true proportion is lost, and the personal self 
becomes of the greatest consequence. The 
things that gratify and seemingly do good to 



^58 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

the personality are looked upon as the good 
things of life, while whatever thwarts or in- 
terferes with personal desire is regarded as 
evil, and all such outer evils become inhar- 
monious or discordant states of consciousness 
that are imaged or pictured in the mind. 

Every thought we think, then, whether it be 
true or false, as imaged In mind, must be ex- 
prest in the body. Health and happiness come 
from an imagination directed and controlled 
by the highest that is within man, while men- 
tal discord and physical disease are the 
resultants of an untrained and uncontrolled 
imagination. "Imagination rules the world," 
said Napoleon; but we must remember that 
the world for each and all of us to rule is that 
of mind and body. This world, rightly ruled, 
will have a beneficent effect on the greater 
world about us. Perfect dominion and con- 
trol of this world of ours can never ensue so 
long as we picture in mind things that are 
contrary to our knowledge of good. 

We should bring every thought into sub- 
jection so that each one shall be pure, bright. 



THOUGHT-PICTURING 259 

and uplifting. The mind that pictures to It- 
self sin, sickness, and disease, must continue to 
dwell In these states, and the body will then 
be fashioned after the mind. But the Christ 
Gospel Is the proclaiming of glad tidings, and 
we should, therefore, carry glad tidings with 
us. Our every thought should be fashioned 
by love, the hope, and the faith of life. We 
should rise above contradictory states of being 
— above the discord and unrest of material 
or worldly self-consciousness. 

What we wish to be or to do In this world 
we must get clearly Imaged in mind. When- 
ever we want to Impress anything on other 
minds, we must have that picture clear and 
distinct In our own; and In order to make It 
effectual we must hold It before our mental 
vision so that the picture becomes virtually a 
part of us. By this method we get the true 
action of will to make effectual the thought 
we have Idealized. Everything that man 
makes is thought Into existence ; and the more 
the Imaging faculty Is developed, the more 
expression we find In the outer world. We 



260 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

see It exprest in more abundant statuary, 
paintings, and books; in public buildings, 
gardens, parks, and dwellings. Everything 
that man fashions or gives expression to in 
the outer world is first imaged in mind — and 
according to the image will be the expression. 
And it is so with our thoughts on all matters 
of life. Harmony of thought and strength 
of purpose will and must find their expression 
in strength of body and perfection of form. 



Chapter XIII 
Regeneration 



REGENERATION 

In modern every-day life we are constantly 
hearing more or less about degeneration. To 
degenerate is looked upon as a retrograde 
movement from a development that has once 
been acquired only to be lost later — a return 
to the primal type. It might be said that it 
was the beginning of the disintegration of 
one's individuality, a reversal of the human 
to the animal. Some have thought that, in 
the end, there is complete disintegration of 
both mind and body; and some have further 
declared that even the soul is lost, becoming 
dissipated, or returning to and losing its iden- 
tity in Universal Soul or Spirit. If this were 
true, then it would seem as tho man could 
set aside the laws of the Infinite, and undo 
the work of the great Creative Spirit; that 
he has the power to destroy that which the 
Almighty has created. I can not follow this 

263 



m4< SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

process of reasoning because I believe that 
the Divine Ideal is written into all things 
small or great, and while, to a degree, the 
Ideal may be hindered in its development or 
outward expression so that it does not con- 
form in a perfect way to the laws of its being, 
nevertheless, it can not be obliterated or cease 
to be, and must be exprest. 

When we realize that Universal Will lives 
in all form, working there both to will and 
to do, how can this Universal Will be 
thwarted before the Ideal has been fully 
realized or exprest? What we look upon as 
degeneration may, at best, be only a state or 
a condition of retarded development. It may 
be simply one of the lowest types of humanity 
in process of development. Doubtless the 
scientists, if they had been making a study of 
the Prodigal Son, would have said that he 
was degenerate, and that In becoming the 
servant of the swine he had passed beyond 
the human pale, and I am Inclined to think 
that many people who were not scientists, 
reached this conclusion, because we are dis- 



REGENERATION 265 

tinctly told that "no man gave unto him." 
But out of what seemed a bottomless pit, 
there came for the Prodigal the full and com- 
plete redemption. Degeneration was dis- 
placed by regeneration. The better conscious- 
ness of the past prevailed, and out of it there 
came a new consciousness. This must have 
been true, for we hear the father saying of 
the son, "This, my son, was dead and is 
alive again, he was lost and is found." Some- 
times people are dead for a season, but after 
a time there comes the awakening. Some- 
times people are lost, but eventually they are 
found. Being dead implies the absence of 
something that one once had. We could not 
think of any one as having died who had not 
lived. The Prodigal Son had, for a season, 
been dead to the better life that he had once 
lived. He had known at one time the Father 
as Love. We have every reason to believe 
that he thought his father's love lost to him. 
For the time being, he was both dead and 
lost; that is, in his own consciousness, but he 
was neither dead nor lost to the Father. So 



^66 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

I believe it will be found in the cases of the 
people whom one may now look upon as de- 
generates, outcasts of God and man; they 
may be both dead and lost in the present, but 
the time will come for them when there will 
be this resurrection from the dead. 

If the Prodigal Son was dead then there 
must have been a resurrection In his life. For 
every death, whether you call it mental or 
physical, there must be a resurrection, and 
this resurrection brings to one's consciousness 
not only the knowledge but all the good ac- 
quired in the past; and even more than this, 
there comes with each new awakening a 
greater knowledge, because people only die 
such deaths as the Prodigal died In order to 
awaken to some greater truth of life. 

Every experience, no matter how painful 
or how sorrowful, really brings some new 
lesson, some new knowledge in the working 
out of life's problem. Whether a man goes 
forward or seemingly backward on life's 
pathway, each way has its purpose. In the 
grand economy of life nothing is lost. Every 



REGENERATION 267 

experience is really needed to reach some 
definite end, or to fill some definite purpose. 
In human life all things, whether we are 
conscious of it or not, are working together 
for good. 

To generate is to bring something into be- 
ing. It is an effort of Universal Life and 
Intelligence to take form in the world, and 
the cause of all form is simply the need to 
express the inner ideal or plan. To regene- 
rate, we might say, is to recreate or to renew, 
and the new effort is to give a new, higher, 
and better expression of an ideal that has not 
yet been fully exprest. For as growth goes 
on in a natural way there is ever a fuller and 
a more complete expression of the ideal. The 
development of the ideal is, indeed, evidenced 
by the continued growth. 

Regeneration is a constant process with 
some people. They live daily into newness 
of life, and this being the case, of a necessity 
they die daily to the old things. We might 
call it a constant state of living and dying. 
There are other people in the process of re- 



268 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

generation, with varying seasons wherein 
there are states of activity, and then later will 
come periods in which it would almost seem 
that they are in the retrograde process of de- 
generation. We find these two conditions of 
things illustrated in nature. In tropical coun- 
tries, vegetation continues to grow through- 
out the year. In northern countries, however, 
all vegetation seems, during the v/inter, to be 
in a state of stagnation, a living death. But, 
with the return of spring, there comes the 
awakening to life of the apparently dead. 
What seems to be death, at least, is only a 
state of arrested development. 

In northern or in southern climes, each 
thing continues its course until the plan has 
found its full expression. In the perfecting 
of the plan greater development and greater 
strength have been acquired. The form may 
pass into the invisible, but the energy and the 
intelligence used in the construction of the 
form, will later produce a still more beautiful 
form. A new generation will come, and a 
new form will take its place in the world as a 



REGENERATION 269 

s)TTibol of a greater life, a greater intelligence. 
This is the process through which all life is 
passing, from that which is little to that which 
is great, from the acorn to the mighty oak, 
from the new-born child to the man endowed 
with wisdom and power. There is an abso- 
lute continuity between generation and re- 
generation; the former is constantly leading 
up to the latter, and Nature keeps on, as it 
were, repeating herself until that which was 
partial and incomplete in the beginning be- 
comes whole and complete in the end. In 
reality there is no end, because the ending 
of any one octave of being is only the begin- 
ning of the next. 

The Master once said to a seeker after 
truth: "Ye must be^born again." The seeker 
could see only one birth, that is, a physical 
manifestation. But all being born again is 
of the Spirit of the unseen. Later there 
comes the manifestation which is the evidence 
of the Spirit. But there can be no manifesta- 
tion that leaves the Spirit out, and so the Im- 
portant thing always is the realization that 



270 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Life and Intelligence are the first cause, and 
body or form the last effect. The man who 
comes to a full consciousness of life knows 
that he is not born of flesh, or of blood, or of 
the will of man, but of the will of God. 
The flesh and the blood and the human will 
can, at best, but symbolize the Divine Mind 
and Will that brought it into existence. In 
the first place degeneration and the regenera- 
tion of man goes on in his life without much 
conscious recognition of what is taking place. 
Its first stage seems to be solely a physical 
state. Later it appears to be both physical 
and mental. But these are only two stages 
in the development of life. These two, how- 
ever, constitute what is known as the mind of 
the world, the carnal mind, or that mind 
which is at best only partial or incomplete. 
Under the action of this mind, forms are 
born into the world in order that later they 
may die or pass away. The mind of the 
world surrounds itself with all kinds of lim- 
itations. It is subject to time, disease, and 
death. By and by there will come the con- 



REGENERATION 271 

sclous regeneration, a knowledge that all life 
is of the Spirit, that both mind and body are 
only expressions of a Universal Will and 
Divine Intelligence. 

We have always lived in God. God has 
always lived in us. There has never been 
any separation. All seeming separation ex- 
isted In man's worldly or partial mind. We 
are beginning to understand in a truer way 
the meaning of such statements as: "Ye are 
the temple of God, and the Spirit of God 
dwelleth in you," that it is God who worketh 
within to will and to do, and that of our- 
selves we are nothing; that there is no life, 
no intelligence, and no body apart from the 
Universal Life and Intelligence, of which the 
body Is, in only a limited degree, an expres- 
sion. When the regeneration comes that 
Jesus referred to as "being born again," the 
new birth will imply the being born out of a 
worldly consciousness Into a heavenly con- 
sciousness, out of the consciousness of the 
flesh Into the consciousness of the Spirit, 
out of the consciousness of humanity Into 



272 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

the consciousness of Divinity. This is what 
Paul means when he says: "If any man 
be in Christ, he is a new creature," or a 
new creation. He might have put the 
passage in a different way. If Christ be 
in any man, he is attuned to the conscious- 
ness of a new Hfe, wherein the old things pass 
away before the coming newness of the Spirit 
of Life. Under the old order we were sub- 
ject to the things of man's external world. 
Under the new order we rule all things, be- 
cause we are only subject to the mind and 
will of the indwelling Spirit. 

Jesus said: "The wind bloweth where It 
llsteth, and thou canst not tell from whence It 
Cometh or whither it goeth. So Is every one 
that Is born of the Spirit.'* While we can 
not tell whence It comes or whither it goes, 
nevertheless. It becomes more of a reality to 
the one who has experienced It than anything 
that the eye can see or the hand can touch. 
Again, while we may not know from whence 
it comes and whither it goes, yet each one 
may. In a way, have much to do with Its com- 



REGENERATION 273 

ing. "Prepare ye the way of the Lord," is 
as much a call to action in the present as it 
ever was in the past. If we are consciously 
to cooperate with the Spirit within in the 
bringing about of a new order, then we shall 
find that there are many things to do, things 
which no one else can do for us. The mind- 
storms will have to cease, and the waves be 
stilled. There must be a constant effort to 
overcome partial ways of thinking and doing, 
a constant effort to replace all that is old and 
imperfect by that which is new. Habits that 
have hindered us, thoughts that have dis- 
turbed us, and superficial emotions that have 
retarded us, are to be overcome. This pre- 
paring for the Advent of the Lord is a neces- 
sary stage at some time or another in every 
life that cometh into this world. 

The gift of the Spirit is free to all who are 
ready to receive it, but the mind of man has, 
as it were, to prepare an abiding place for it; 
for the full consciousness of the Spirit can 
come only when the mind is in a state of 
peace. If the mind is disturbed by fears or 



274< SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

doubts, if it is troubled by worries or anxie- 
ties, then there is no room for the conscious- 
ness of the Spirit. The Spirit dictates its own 
terms as to the conditions under which it 
comes or whether it stays. The mind has no 
choice but to comply. If the temple of the 
mind is a fit habitation, then the Spirit may 
remain as the permanent Guest ; not but what 
it lives and has lived always in the life, but 
under unreal conditions there has been no con- 
scious evidence of its abiding. If one desires 
evidence, it is only through meeting the re- 
quirements under which it can be had — the 
control of one's thoughts so that one chooses 
that which one desires to think ; the cultivating 
a mind that expresses itself through strong 
stability and purpose, a mind freed from 
everything in the nature of prejudices, so that 
it can render true judgment concerning all it 
may have to deal with, a mind that does not 
go back to the past for the solution of its 
problems but rather finds its solutions in the 
present. All this, then, is the necessary prep- 
aration for the coming of true regeneration. 



Chapter XIV 
Habits, How Acquired or Overcome 



HABITS, HOW ACQUIRED OR 
OVERCOME 

We begin the forming of habits in earliest 
childhood, and when old age comes we are 
still engaged in forming them. The fact that 
we do acquire habits must show the necessity 
for them. In life everything is made to 
serve some purpose. Some one has said that 
the greatest art is to conceal art, which means 
that when we have acquired the art of doing 
anything in the best way, it is no longer neces- 
sary for the conscious mind to dwell on the 
doing of it, and so, when occasion demands 
its use, it apparently becomes a spontaneous, 
natural effort. A technique in any kind of 
work should be acquired by the conscious 
mind only in order to be forgotten. When 
we are able to do this, it will be found that, 
wherever the technique is necessary, the sup- 
ply will equal the demand. 

277 



278 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

When we consciously do anything In the 
best possible way, it Is really not necessary to 
try to remember how we do It, because It 
leaves a lasting impression on the subconscious 
mind that can be recalled at will. Just as 
soon as a thorough knowledge Is gained In the 
doing of any particular thing, then conscious- 
ly one may forget It without losing such 
knowledge. A good habit Is established 
through doing something In the best possible 
way, and a bad habit Is formed through doing 
something in a careless, partial, or Incomplete 
way. But habits, whether good or bad, when 
once formed, continue to occur over and over 
again to the conscious mind In the way, or 
according to the form they have taken. 
Now the only way of overcoming a bad habit 
Is through the substitution of a good one, or 
one that contains the necessary elements of 
wholeness and completeness In It. The man 
who makes the greatest progress In life will 
be the one who devotes himself to the over- 
coming of all that he finds discordant, par- 
tial, or Incomplete In any of his ways of 



HABITS, HOW ACQUIRED 279 

thinking or doing, and he can hope to over- 
come such conditions only through that which 
is harmonious, whole, and complete. 

Some people talk of habits as being both 
mental and physical. But remember at best, 
that which seems to be purely physical is only 
an expression of one's mentality. The physi- 
cal does not act of Itself; all physical action 
is the result of mind and will; therefore, in 
the overcoming of any so-called physical habit, 
one can not hope to overcome through giving 
It up while possibly still retaining the desire 
to continue It. The mental states which pro- 
duce the habit are the conditions to attack, 
and one can hope to be truly successful only 
when he has overcome the old thought and 
desire that caused the forming of the habit, 
by entirely new thought and desire. Let us 
remember that it is not what we do that 
makes us what we are, but it Is what we feel 
and think. The doing Is only the fruit, and 
if the fruit is not good. It Is, nevertheless, a 
true expression of one's thoughts and feel- 
ings. Heart and mind should work together. 



280 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Inner knowledge of truth we know at first 
only to a limited degree, but If to the degree 
of our knowledge we give it expression, then 
w411 a greater knowledge come, and with It 
should also come the greater performance, 
so that even those which we call our good 
habits, If they remain stationary, become 
limitations and hindrances to further develop- 
ment. The greater the knowledge we receive, 
the greater the necessity for Its use in our 
unfolding. In childhood many habits are es- 
tablished, not because of any preference for 
them, but rather because of the desire and will 
of parents, nurses, and later on, of other 
teachers and instructors. Hence, a very large 
part of the lives we live are not so much of 
our own making as the Influence of other 
minds upon us. Nor does this cease with 
childhood, for later on in life we still find our 
minds Influenced by the thoughts and opinions 
of other people to a far greater degree than 
we are influenced by any thought that arises 
from the minds and lives of others. 

We are the actors of other people's 



HABITS, HOW ACQUIRED 281 

thoughts and lives, and the average person has 
very little of what might be called "original- 
ity" in his make up. He goes through life 
thinking that he is living his own life, when 
in fact probably ninety per cent, of all he is, 
of all he thinks, is only an expression of what 
others have thought and felt. Such people 
can not be said to live in any true sense of the 
word. God gave them minds to think for 
themselves, but they find it so much easier to 
let other people do their thinking. They are 
only the echoes of the people who have had 
the courage to give expression to their own 
thoughts. What was good enough for their 
grandfathers and grandmothers is good 
enough for them. Life to them does not 
seem to be a pathway that leads ever on- 
ward and upward, but rather a circle to go 
around and never get anywhere. Such people 
are usually the conservatives who are op- 
posed to all progress, who not only stand in 
their own light, but try to shut out the light 
from others. 

Sometime in the life of every individual 



282 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

the knowledge must dawn upon him that his 
progress will come through using his own 
mind, and knowing, regardless of the opinions 
of others, what is best for his own life. This 
will not be the end of his struggles, but in a 
way only the beginning of them, because he 
will find that, if he is going to enjoy his new- 
found freedom, it will be necessary for him 
to overcome the old desires, the old habits. 
Only then shall the real battle of life begin; 
only then will he have transferred the battle- 
ground from the external to the mental plane 
of being. He had thought in the past that 
all the battles of life were to be waged on 
the physical. Now he comes to see that his 
real effort must be directed toward forming 
a new subconsciousness, so that this new con- 
sciousness may be the means of overcoming 
the old consciousness. So the real warfare is 
always between that which is old and that 
which is new. It does not mean that any- 
thing that is really good or true in the sub- 
conscious mind is to be overcome, or in any 
sense destroyed, but rather that this goodness 



HABITS, HOW ACQUIRED 283 

and truth which we have already acquired 
shall be constantly added to in an ever-in- 
creasing way. At no place and at no time 
does progress cease. Progress is not for 
time, but for eternity. No matter how great 
an ideal of life may be disclosed to the mind 
of man, if, through honest desire and effort 
on his part, he seeks to fulfil that ideal, still 
another and a greater ideal will come to his 
consciousness. Thus, it will be found that 
every ideal, lived to the full, will bring a 
newer and a greater ideal. 

In the subconscious mind there exist count- 
less wrong and untrue conceptions concerning 
life and its requirements. In them all there 
may be a partial truth. Nevertheless, the 
only way to overcome these partial or imper- 
fect conceptions will be through the full and 
complete conception. So that when that which 
is whole is come, then that which is in part 
will be done away. It is in this way alone 
that all the evil and discord in life are over- 
come. It really means the overcoming of 
darkness with light, the overcoming of falsity 



284 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

with truth, the overcoming of ignorance with 
knowledge, the overcoming of any wrong 
habit of mind or body with the better habit. 
This is the natural way, the way that makes 
for the true development of character. Char- 
acter is not made for us; we make it for 
ourselves. The Creative Spirit endowed us 
with everything necessary for the building of 
character, metaphorically, I might say, gave 
us the plan and the tools, and with that and 
those tools we must build our own temple of 
character. Character is not made for any 
one by any one else, but each individual is the 
builder of his own character, and the indi- 
vidual who is really true to himself will not 
borrow any one else's tools or use any one 
else's plan. He will never be a mere copyist, 
but will use his own tools and will follow his 
own plan. He will know that all overcoming 
will take place only as a direct spiritual and 
mental result of his own efforts. 

A habit is formed through thinking and 
doing something in a certain way for a num- 
ber of times. After a time it becomes easier 



HABITS, HOW ACQUIRED 285 

to conform to the habit than to keep from 
doing it. But in the forming of the habit 
there is something that takes place that few 
people know about. It is this : that any habit 
formed and continued in, acts somewhat like 
a magnet, to attract to us people who have 
established habits similar to our own. In- 
deed, I might say, that it is in the nature of a 
dual attraction. We attract them, and they 
attract us. Bad habits serve to bring us into 
close relationship with people who indulge 
in bad habits, and their influence upon us 
serves to strengthen and to confirm the bad 
habits that we have already acquired; and 
only as we overcome the bad habits do we 
become disentangled from the people we have 
become related to. Let us take a concrete 
example. One has established a habit of tak- 
ing strong drink. He may start the habit In 
the first place by thinking that he needs it as 
a tonic, or for some one of many reasons 
which seem to be good and sufficient at the 
moment. After a little time he finds that he 
prefers to be in the company of people who 



286 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

are drinking. Very often it will be noticed 
that, after a man acquires the habit of drink, 
his whole companionship in life changes. One 
knows only in part what he is doing in es- 
tablishing any kind of a habit. He may know 
such a habit to be either right or wrong, but 
he does not know to what degree it may 
serve to influence his own life or the lives of 
others; it not only affects his consciousness, 
but may also affect to a very marked degree 
his outer environment, because, through con- 
sciousness, must come the harmonious or dis- 
cordant adjustment to environment. 

The outer is an expression of the inner, 
but it also has its reflex action upon the inner. 
Of two people living under virtually the same 
conditions through harmonious consciousness, 
one may be so related to his outer environ- 
ment that he derives nothing but strength and 
happiness because of true adjustment, while 
the other, through a sense of evil or a dis- 
cordant consciousness, may find nothing satis- 
factory or good in his environment. Thus, 
we perceive that it is the consciousness which 



HABITS, HOW ACQUIRED 287 

we bring to life that serves to adjust in either 
one way or the other. What we give to the 
world, the world gives back again to us. We 
make our own world whether we know it or 
not. Consciousness is the glass through which 
we look. A glass may be clear and bright or 
it may be dull and smoky; it may be rose- 
colored or it may be gray and somber. I 
have no doubt that it is the desire of every 
one to live in a bright, rose-colored world, 
but the only way in which that desire can be 
realized is through the bringing to the world 
all the brightness and all the color that we 
can give to our own thoughts and actions. If 
any one desires anything from the world let 
him know that he must sow the seeds of what- 
ever he desires ; in other words, he must give 
away that which he wants most, just as the 
farmer who wants wheat gives bushels of 
wheat In order to get back hundreds of 
bushels. No farmer would sow bushels of 
thistle-seeds or other kinds of weeds hoping 
to get back bushels of wheat. He would know 
that he could reap only what he had sown. 



288 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

It IS exactly the same in human life. We 
are continually reaping what we have sown. 
Whatever we want in life we may have by 
paying the price for it ; be it something good 
or something evil, there is a price exacted. 
We do not get something for nothing. With 
what measure we mete it will be measured 
back to us again. There are some people 
in the world who are very selfish but who, 
nevertheless, expect others to be unselfish with 
them in all their dealings. Such a position 
is just as absurd as the farmer sowing the 
thistle-seeds and expecting in return wheat. 
The selfishness in one individual only serves 
as a means of calling out the same quality in 
some other person. Each person may be said 
to be a magnet, and the different qualities 
possest by each magnet becomes the means 
of attraction of kindred qualities from other 
people. Selfishness and greed always over- 
shoot the mark, and never really bring to the 
individual that which he hopes for. For, 
even supposing people should gain the mate- 
rial part of their desires, yet if, afterward. 



HABITS, HOW ACQUIRED 289 

there was no sense of happiness or enjoyment 
coming from their gains, In what way would 
they have benefited ? They would have gained 
the letter, but they would have lost the spirit. 
What would it profit any one if he should 
gain all outer things, and then have no power 
to enjoy what he had gained? Under such 
conditions he could not be said to be in any 
real possession of what he had gained. One 
may be without any worldly possessions, and 
yet get a greater pleasure through a keen 
appreciation of the beauties of nature, the 
color or perfume of the flowers, the varied 
hues or songs of the birds. In fact, all nature 
may be said to appeal to him. He may enter 
into a far more thorough enjoyment of a 
beautiful picture hanging on some one else's 
wall than may the person who owns the pic- 
ture. Such a man, altho lacking in material 
possessions, gets far more of the real riches 
from life than the one who has unlimited 
worldly possessions, yet has neither heart nor 
mind to enter Into the enjoyment of them. 
In such a case the rich man, after all, Is 



290 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

only the beggar, and the man poor in this 
world's goods but with the love and the true 
spirit of appreciation is the prince. That is 
really what Jesus meant when He said: 
"What does it profit a man if he should gain 
the whole world and lose his own soul?'' 
When a person is thoroughly engrossed in the 
things of the world, he may be said to have 
lost his own soul, and his only chance of re- 
demption is through the surrender of his 
material possessions, and the forming of new 
desires and new habits that will make for a 
higher consciousness. We all remember a 
story told in the New Testament of a certain 
rich young man, who was desirous of finding 
the way of life, how he came to Jesus, and 
how Jesus asked him certain questions as to 
whether he had done certain things; and he 
answered Him by saying that all these things 
he had done from his youth up. Then the 
Master said to him : "Sell all that thou hast, 
and give to the poor, and come, and follow 
Me." And we are told that the young man 
went away sorrowful; and yet, apparently. 



HABITS, HOW ACQUIRED 291 

this was the one thing needful in his case. 
His riches stood between him and the real 
joy and happiness of life. A new habit, in 
his case, had to be established and the only 
way this could be done was through the sur- 
render of all that he held most dear in order 
that he might enter into the real riches of 
life. It was necessary, in his case, that he 
should forego the love of mammon, in order 
to love and serve God in a vital way. 

Many people find that they have contracted 
habits which stand in the way of real happi- 
ness. They are not the real masters of their 
own lives, but are servants of their own habits. 
When any one forms a habit that he can not 
forego at will, then he has surrendered his 
own mind and will to his habits and is not a 
free man, but the slave of habit. All kinds 
of slavery are intolerable. No one under any 
form of bondage can ever hope to be happy. 
Happiness can exist only where there is real 
freedom. Why should any one forego real 
happiness for something that can never satis- 
fy? People may be blind at first, thinking 



29^ SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

that from some wrong habit they are being 
benefited, but such a delusion can not exist 
for any great length of time; and when one 
knows it to be a delusion, why should he still 
consciously continue the slave of his delusion? 
Only he is free who controls his own 
thoughts. It is in the mind that every habit 
has its starting point. We can so control our 
thoughts that we shall form only habits that 
will make for our real betterment. It is much 
easier not to form a wrong habit than it is 
to overcome that habit when it has once come 
into being. False habits do not come into 
existence when the mind is thoroughly poised. 
When we allow ourselves to be negative our 
minds are easily imprest by the unreal 
thoughts of others. It is in such conditions 
of mind that we lay, as it were, the founda- 
tion of false habits. No one ever brought 
into being any false habit when his mind was 
dwelling on the real or the positive things of 
life. An optimist forms the habit of seeing 
everything in a rosy light, and he needs to 
make no special effort to retain such habits. 



HABITS, HOW ACQUIRED 293 

The pessimist fills his own mind with gloomy 
and despondent thoughts and thus is not able 
to transmit to other minds anything that will 
make for real betterment. He is not happy 
himself, and can not make any one else happy. 
Both the optimist and the pessimist have 
formed habits, but one exerts on his own mind 
and also the minds of others a sunny, whole- 
some influence, whilst the other's influence 
makes for a morbid, unhealthy frame of mind. 
Nevertheless, in the first place, the good 
habit is just as easy to establish as the wrong 
habit: it all depends on how we start. 

False habits are the children of doubt, 
selfishness, and a perverted imagination that 
thinks one can be made happy through self- 
gratification. True habits are established 
through the faith that recognizes that the part 
is related to the whole, and can realize Its 
happiness only as It fulfils every duty neces- 
sary for the welfare of the whole. The false 
habit is a reflection or an expression of the 
lower self, and there is nothing In It that can 
make for the good of this lower self. The 



294 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

true habit is a faithful expression of the 
higher self, resulting in good not only to the 
self, but bringing with it something that is 
going to prove of benefit to others. If we are 
master-workmen, we shall fashion all our 
work after the very best possible plans, and 
then do our work in so thorough a way that 
it becomes a real expression of ourselves, 
drawing more and more into the larger life, 
and thus creating a subconsciousness that, 
when called upon, will always bring to the 
conscious mind something of a strengthening 
and uplifting nature. It is in this way that 
we are going to eliminate states and condi- 
tions of mind that are no longer necessary. 
Only in this way can we strengthen and per- 
fect our lives, and bring them into harmony 
with the laws of God and of man. 



Chapter XV 
Mental and Spiritual Healing 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 
HEALING 

Under the philosophy of Mental Heal- 
ing there is no one subject about which more 
misapprehension exists than that relating to 
the Treatment given to the sick. The very 
simplicity of it makes it difficult for those 
to understand who are looking for something 
of a highly complex nature. Its simplicity is 
attested by the fact that little children have 
often a truer conception of it than people 
who are grown up. Even those who have 
made some study of the subject ask many 
questions which show failure to grasp even 
the fundamental ideas of Mental Healing. 
Some of those questions are as follows: "Is 
it Christian Science? Faith-cure? Hypnotism? 
Spiritualism?'* and other isms without num- 
ber. I wish to make clear that it is not one 
or any of these, and a brief explanation will 
show why it is not. 

297 



298 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Christian Science has a system of denials 
and affirmations for the healing of the sick. 
It denies the existence of sin, disease, and 
pain. It denies the existence even of our 
bodies; in fact, all nature is looked upon 
much in the same way that many of the 
Hindu people regard the great external uni- 
verse, as Maya or illusion. Christian Science 
defines it as "mortal mind." There is no 
doubt that the Founder of Christianity be- 
lieved in the existence of both sin and dis- 
ease, and all material things. On one occa- 
sion He said, when healing a man, "Thy 
sins be forgiven thee; go, and sin no more, 
lest a worse thing befall thee" — a direct 
recognition of both sin and disease as having 
existence. He tells His followers to "Con- 
sider the lilies of the field," and says that 
"God so clothes the grass of the field," show- 
ing that He looks at the visible universe in 
much the same way as the Psalmist who 
says: "Day unto day uttereth speech, and 
night unto night showeth forth knowledge." 

New Thought in agreement with the 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 299 

Christ declares that sin, disease, and pain 
all have existence, but they exist simply be- 
cause of lack of conformity to the laws of 
life. It declares that we are living in a 
universe of cause and effect; that every 
cause produces an effect and the effect is 
like unto the cause. All good causes pro- 
duce harmonious effects; and all discordant 
causes, discordant results. It is well known 
now that each thought we think pictures it- 
self in the conscious mind. Unreal or evil 
thoughts make us inharmonious and dis- 
cordant while thinking them, and even when 
we have ceased to think of them consciously, 
both the thoughts and their actions are re- 
moved only in a temporary way. They be- 
come part and parcel of the subconscious 
mind, and whenever one consciously thinks 
evil again, the old subconscious thoughts 
come trooping up like so many ghosts to re- 
inforce the evil. There is a law of associa- 
tion of ideas by which the conscious mind 
recalls from the subconsciousness thoughts 
and feelings of a similar nature to reinforce 



300 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

that which the conscious mind is thinking 
and feeling at the time. Every unwholesome 
thought-picture that enters into the mind of 
man, is, therefore, more than a mere tempo- 
rary thing; it is something that abides with 
him. His denying it away will not serve to 
make it less, but rather does it serve to con- 
tinue it; because in denying one must formu- 
late a picture in mind of the thing denied, 
and if the conscious picture later becomes 
subconscious and lives on, every time denial 
is resorted to, it adds just so much strength 
to the original false thought-picture that 
has been created in the mind through the 
process of denial and thus serves only to 
perpetuate that which it seeks to destroy. 
Whether this process of denial is used by 
the healer on his patient, or through auto- 
suggestion by the patient himself, both are 
hypnotic in effect and no one need ever ex- 
pect to be healed through any negative proc- 
ess of treatment. I know that, in making 
the foregoing statements, there are many 
who will take exception and say that, because 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 301 

Christian Scientists do obtain cures, that dis- 
proves the truth of any such theory. But 
the fact remains that they make their cures, 
in spite of their denials, through their affir- 
mations of truth; because, after all, it is a 
knowledge of truth and of truth alone that 
makes us free. Living the positive, the affir- 
mative life is the only way to overcome all 
negative conditions. When we affirm the 
eternal realities of life — life, light, love, and 
truth — such affirmations carry within them- 
selves the denial of anything and everything 
which in any way contradicts them. There 
are people who say that they have been able 
to overcome pain by its denial. Doing this 
seems to them to be thoroughly good; some- 
thing to be greatly desired. We should 
know, however, that pain is a signal of dis- 
tress, an indication that in some way we are 
not conforming with the requirements of life 
and its laws, and the one thing necessary is 
neither to forget nor to deny, but rather to 
recognize that in it there are conditions to 
be overcome, not to be put aside by denial 



302 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

but to be overcome through true thought and 
feeling. Viewed In this way, pain is seen to 
be one's friend, warning him away from still 
greater trouble. No one can ever become 
thoroughly courageous or self-reliant through 
any process of denial. This trying to bolster 
up one's courage by telling oneself that one Is 
not afraid of this thing or that thing. Is very 
much like a little child alone in a dark room, 
saying to himself: "I am not afraid of the 
dark, I am not afraid of the dark." The 
child would never make use of such an ex- 
pression If he were not afraid, and so, when 
people resort to denial, let them know that. 
Instead of overcoming wrong conditions. In- 
stead of perfecting and strengthening their 
lives, they are only undermining and weaken- 
ing them. 

What Is known as Faith Cure has been, 
more or less, used In the healing of disease 
for a great many years. The "faith-curlst" 
believes that his patient, having incurred 
God's displeasure, is being punished by Him 
for his wrongdoing; and so he, on behalf of 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 303 

his patient, sometimes with and sometimes 
without, the aid of the patient, intercedes 
with God to remove His displeasure. There 
can be no question that cures are made in this 
way; but it does not follow that the basic 
thought of the faith-curist is right — that 
God's will has been set aside to please the 
need of some erring suppliant — but rather, 
that the patient's life, through desire and 
prayer, has been brought into more har- 
monious relationship with life and its laws, 
so that the faith, in his life and in that of 
the practitioner, has become a healing ele- 
ment. There can be no healing virtue in a 
little piece of the wristbonc of a saint, and 
yet there are thousands of people who have 
testified to their recovery when they have 
prayed before it at the shrine of Saint Anne 
in the Church in the province of Quebec. 
Sometimes In the deepest prayer one tran- 
scends physical limitations and there comes a 
new consciousness of life. New Thought be- 
lieves that law and order prevail throughout 
the universe and that all conformity with this 



304 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

law and order makes for health and happi- 
ness; that all infringement of it makes for 
disease and pain; that the only way to over- 
come the latter condition is through a new 
and better adjustment to life; that obedience 
to law is its own reward, while disobedience 
brings its own punishment, and that we re- 
ward or punish ourselves through right or 
wrong adjustment to life and its environment. 
Spiritualists often make the claim that the 
healing is accomplished because of the aid re- 
ceived by the healer and his patient, from 
those who have passed out of the physical 
body. Some spiritualistic healers claim that 
they are only the mediums through which 
disembodied spirits act for the healing of the 
sick. The writer has met no less than ten 
different spiritualistic healers, residing in dif- 
ferent parts of the world, who have declared 
that they are controlled by Mesmer, and 
doubtless, there are many hundreds of other 
similar healers that he has never heard of, 
who make the same statement. In number- 
less cases it is asserted that they are con- 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 305 

trolled by great doctors who have at one 
time or another lived on earth. New Thought 
is opposed to any such position, not because 
it does not believe that good thoughts can 
not be received from those who have passed 
out of their bodies, but rather because the 
mediumship that allows another soul to enter 
in and control the personality of some one 
else, is contrary to the laws of life; and in- 
stead of something to be desired is rather to 
be greatly shunned. There are other reasons 
which make such a theory untrue and un- 
wholesome. People come to believe so im- 
plicitly in It that, instead of finding health 
from within their own consciousness of life, 
they are continually resorting for such health 
to the instrumentality of the spirits, and from 
such a course mental and spiritual stagnation 
ensues to those who follow it. There is a 
full and complete salvation of mind and 
body to be worked out, not by any one indi- 
vidual working it out for one or for many, 
but by each person working it out for him- 
self. The true object of all mental or spir- 



306 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Itual treatment is to help others to help them- 
selves, and when the healer succeeds in doing 
this he is performing a real service to his 
patients and humanity. 

Mental or spiritual treatment is not hyp- 
notism and has really nothing in common 
with it. One may think that because sugges- 
tion is used by both that this makes them 
alike; such, however, is not the case. There 
are many degrees or stages in hypnotism but 
each degree or stage is a violation of natural 
law. If hypnotism were true, it would make 
for mental freedom. The truth ever makes 
for freedom; but because hypnotism is false 
and untrue, it makes for mental and physical 
slavery. The surrender of one person's will 
to another's mind, so that the subject must 
follow the suggestion given him by the hyp- 
notic practitioner unquestionably, can never 
make for freedom. No matter how good 
the suggestion may be (it might even be ex- 
actly the same suggestion that the mental 
healer would make), nevertheless, because it 
is in the nature of an enforced suggestion, 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 307 

wherein the other mind has no option but 
must receive it, it can not work for any real 
or lasting good in the life of the patient. 
No one has any right to surrender the free 
action of his own mind to any other indi- 
vidual, no matter if that other individual be 
a saint; and no one has any right to seek to 
control or direct the life of another person 
in any arbitrary way. 

Hypnotism is thoroughly reactionary from 
first to last. The suggestion given by the hyp- 
notist starts into action all the subconscious 
thoughts and feelings that may be in any 
way associated with, or related to the sug- 
gestion made by the hypnotist. If the sug- 
gestion is good in itself there is no question 
but that it will become related to and bring 
up from the subconscious, the thoughts kin- 
dred to it; and if an evil suggestion, it will 
bring up the evil subconscious thoughts. There 
will be nothing added, but only that which 
has been thought months or even years be- 
fore, so that nothing in reality is added to 
the life, because of the surrender of mind or 



308 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

will to another. Each person was intended 
to rule and control his own life. 

Hypnotism is thoroughly reactionary be- 
cause, from first to last it is rather a forcing 
out process of life. This is indicated by the 
inability of the mind to grasp anything other 
than the suggestion, followed by the sleeping 
state, and still later by a rigid state of the 
body wherein life seems to have almost left 
it. Hence, each state from first to last 
shows that there has been no real action of 
mind or body, but a reaction of all the life 
forces, and such treatment can not be good. 

Hypnotism in its suggestions may give 
good advice, but it is compulsory; and who 
wishes to be compelled in the doing of any- 
thing? No, suggestion must be untrammelled, 
must be free, and given so that the patient 
can act or refuse to act upon it, leaving the 
patient absolutely free to use his own mind 
and to follow suggestion at his own discre- 
tion. The responsibility then rests where it 
belongs. The healer should be interested 
only with the sowing of the right seed and 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 309 

not In any effort to enforce its growth. It 
should be as a New Testament writer puts 
it, Paul may plant, and Apollos may water, 
but God giveth the increase. 

In every life there is latent intelligence 
and power sufficient for the overcoming of 
everything in the nature of sin or disease; 
and the principal object in the giving of 
treatment, is to awaken or call out this inner 
knowledge and force, which is re-creative and 
re-forming in its action on the body. New 
Thought takes the position that man is es- 
sentially a spiritual being; that the soul is a 
differentiation of Universal Spirit. We might 
liken It to the ray from the sun which par- 
takes, In Its nature, of all the elements of the 
sun. The ray can never become separated 
or detached from the sun, so that It may 
have a separate existence of its own, yet It 
can be recognized as a differentiation. So It 
Is with the indlviual soul. Or, again, we 
might liken It to the unit cell In a mass of 
protoplasm. The ring around the cell differ- 
entiates It from the rest of the protoplasm — 



310 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

but the protoplasm is within the ring and the 
ring is within the protoplasm. Differentia- 
tion is simply a question of degree and not 
of kind. The soul of man lives In the All- 
Embracing Spirit and the All-Embracing 
Spirit lives in the soul of man. The ring is 
personality, which differentiates the part 
from the whole. The soul is one with the 
All-Life, one with the All-Intelligence, and it 
is a realization or the consciousness of this 
oneness that brings with it the power to over- 
come sin and disease. The very highest form 
of treatment consists in an effort on the part 
of the healer to awaken this spiritual or Inner 
consciousness of life, and the healer who can 
succeed in doing this will become in the high- 
est degree successful. But one can not hope 
to awaken such a consciousness In another, 
without having first of all realized it for 
himself. 

At this stage we might touch on the sub- 
ject of the necessary qualifications to become 
a successful healer. In the work of healing 
one really gives himself. Take as an illus- 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 311 

tratlon, the healing of the woman who 
touched the hem of the Master's garment. 
He turned and asked of His diclples, *'Who 
touched me?" and they marvelled greatly at 
It, because surrounded by the people, He 
was being touched on every side; but some- 
thing had occurred very different from the 
crowding or the touching of the multitude. 
We are told that He perceived that virtue 
had gone out of Him. Power, energy had 
gone out, and In its going out had awakened 
the potential energy in the life of the dis- 
eased woman so that Instantly she was made 
whole. In the giving of treatment one gives 
of one's self In every possible way physical 
strength, mental strength, spiritual power; 
but if the healer Is In true relationship with 
the Source of All-Life and Power, as life 
and power flow from him to his patient, so 
will they flow Into his own life from the one 
great Source of Life and Power. The suc- 
cessful healer must, therefore, be In right re- 
lationship with the inner life In order that 
he may draw at will everything necessary for 



312 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

one who would be fully equipped for the 
giving of mental or spiritual treatment to 
others. The person who has unfolded to a 
consciousness of love, faith, hope, joy, peace 
has laid the great foundation for the future 
success in his healing. The awakened soul 
becomes the enlightened soul, for light and 
true knowledge are necessary to all strong, 
true effort. The successful healer, too, will 
be one who is thoroughly in love with his 
work, one who loses himself, as it were, in 
the desire to be of help to and to serve 
others. Selfish ends or purposes always stand 
in the way of progress. It is sufficient for 
the healer to know that he is sowing the good 
seed, that in his every true thought and feel- 
ing, he is not only aiding his patients, but 
that he is bringing a greater good into his 
own life. If he is sowing the true seed there 
will surely be a reaping time, and so, the 
further he can get away from that which is 
selfish, the better it will be for him in every 
way. Selfishness always defeats desired ends. 
As a part of the treatment has to do with 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 313 

suggestion, the process of mental-picturing, 
that is, the thought-pictures he forms in mind, 
which he hopes to see realized later by his 
patients, should be clear and concise, living 
thought-pictures; in his efforts to transmit 
such impressions to the minds of others, his 
thought should be thoroughly centered and 
concentrated on what he is doing to the ex- 
clusion of anything and everything else. What 
he feels in his inmost being is the greatest 
force In healing. What he thinks is really in 
the nature of the direction of the healing 
force. It is the awakened feeling In the life 
of the patient that renews or makes new his 
mind and thus transforms his body. The 
healer should never be worried or anxious 
concerning his patient, for worry and anxiety 
imply doubt. Doubt and faith never live to- 
gether in the mind; and faith Is essential to 
all healing — not belief but faith, that in- 
tangible something which one feels and yet 
which It Is hard to give any adequate expres- 
sion of either through one's thoughts or 
through the spoken word. The mental 



314 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

healer should be thoroughly poised between 
the inner and the outer consciousness. He 
must have acquired perfect self-control in 
order to be able to impart it to others. As 
he develops into a higher consciousness he 
will become more and more intuitive, and 
thus be able to perceive the needs of his 
patients without asking them questions. He 
should strive in every way to develop himself 
spiritually, mentally, and physically; all de- 
velopment comes through desire — and effort 
to give outer expression to inner desire. 

Let us ever bear in mind that there is a 
constant process of evolution going on in the 
life of man, and that from first to last there 
are many stages in this evolution. It is the 
same Plan that is written into every life, but 
no two individuals ever work that Plan out 
exactly alike. Every snowflake has its hex- 
agonal form, but no two snowflakes are ever 
alike. There is the unity of the Plan but 
there is diversity in expression. Every soul 
is, therefore, at some stage on the great path- 
way of life between the Adam and the 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 315 

Christ. Now we all need light on what we 
are living to-day, not on what we may have 
to do in the months, years, or ages to come, 
but just upon the problems that confront us 
in the present. It, therefore, must become 
self-evident that, in the giving of treatment, 
all the varying stages in life must be taken 
into consideration, and that people should be 
given only the spiritual or mental food that 
they are able to digest and assimilate. In 
the light of this it will be seen that no two 
people should be given exactly the same treat- 
ment. Of course, it is the same treatment in 
kind but always differing in degree, adapting 
itself to the personal needs and requirements 
of the patient. The patient living the physi- 
cal life must be brought to see that con- 
formity with what at least appears to be 
physical law and order, is necessary for his 
own well-being, and that temperance must 
regulate his life and be used in connection 
with all physical desire. In such a case it 
would be folly to try to impart spiritual in- 
sight because, before spiritual insight can 



316 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

come, man must have prepared the way for 
it, for the same law and order prevail in this 
human life that are to be found on any other 
plane of life and its expression. The blos- 
som and the fruit are last on the tree; years 
of preparation are necessary before they ap- 
pear. A man must develop to be something 
more than an animal; he must become a 
thinking, reasoning being before he can be- 
come receptive to spiritual knowledge. It 
will be found that, on every plane of de- 
velopment, there are special needs, and it is 
for the healer to show, through his treat- 
ment, how these needs can be met. The 
Apostle Paul was quite right when he said: 
''Milk for babes." But no matter at what 
stage of his development a man may be, he 
can begin the practise of self-control; and so, 
from first to last, self-control should be in- 
culcated in the mind of the patient as the 
first requisite of a well-ordered life. The 
healer must take people where he finds them 
and aid them in every way to adjust to the 
plane to which they belong. This will bring 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 317 

about a more satisfactory state for the true 
evolution than could take place under any 
other conditions. For just as soon as one 
has learned adjustment to environment, con- 
sciously or unconsciously, one has begun to 
cooperate with the laws of life in his own 
evolution. Every plane of being is relatively 
good. The full development and use of the 
senses is as essential In the evolution of the 
life of man as the highest attributes of soul; 
but on each plane everything in the nature 
of extremes should be avoided. The glutton 
who over-eats and the ascetic who starves 
himself are both extremes, and on their dif- 
ferent planes of life one Is as far from the 
truth as the other. Let us remember that 
each plane of life Is partial or Incomplete, 
yet good as far as It goes, but lacking In 
something which Is yet to be disclosed on a 
higher plane. The tendency of all life Is 
from that which is partial and Incomplete to 
that which Is whole and complete; from the 
crude and undeveloped to that which Is per- 
fect and fully developed^ Healers have no 



318 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

right to try to forestall the future; but 
rather in the giving of their treatment to 
concern themselves always with the real needs 
of the patient at the time of the giving of 
treatment. 

The healer should perceive simply a false 
condition of mind, or a weakened or diseased 
condition of the body which has to be over- 
come. In sin and disease, instead of looking 
at them as being real conditions he should 
see that they really signify the lack, that the 
sin has to be overcome, and be replaced by 
right thought and action. The healer, there- 
fore, perceiving the actual needs of his pa- 
tient, should direct his whole attention to 
true, positive thought and feeling. When- 
ever he finds excesses of any kind, he should 
seek to establish a state of physical and men- 
tal temperance; when there is weakness he 
should establish strength. Especially is it 
true of the lower planes of life that strong, 
true suggestion will prove of the greatest 
value. The thought of the healer so im- 
presses itself in the mind of his patient that 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 319 

it becomes, as it were, the seed of future 
growth. With some it may remain as a part 
of the patient's subconsciousness later to 
bring forth fruit after its kind; or, again, 
it may be seized upon by all the patient's 
conscious thinking and become fully exprest 
in mental and physical health in a compara- 
tively short period of time. As I have said 
before, a healer should know that he is only 
responsible for the planting of the seed and 
that it is the Spirit within each individual 
that giveth the increase. He should also 
know that there are seasons for planting; he 
should use good judgment so that the seed 
shall fall in the receptive soil, not be lost by 
the wayside or among the briers or stones 
where it can only fail to bring forth fruit of 
any kind. It is just as possible in the giving 
of treatment to overshoot the mark, as to fall 
short of it. The highest spiritual treatment 
is lost on the man who has developed only 
the physical consciousness of life. The child 
creeps before it walks and walks before it 
can run. But in every case the unheard, 



320 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

silent suggestion is far more effective in its 
action than the spoken word. It meets with 
far less resistance from the mind of the pa- 
tient; in fact, it may be said to enter the 
patient's mind as a part of his own thinking, 
and because of this he is far more likely to 
act on it. The healer should know that 
whatever is In his own consciousness while 
giving a treatment is going to be, to a greater 
or lesser degree, transmitted to the mind of 
his patient. He may say that while giving 
his treatment his mind is conscious only of 
that which he knows will prove beneficial to 
his patient; but if, just previous to giving 
treatment, he has been mentally upset, nerv- 
ous, or irritable, or whatever the condition 
may be, he will transmit something of it to 
his patient whether he desires to do so or 
not. No healer should ever give treatment 
if he has allowed his mind to become angry 
or inflamed; before he gives his treatment 
his mind should be in a state of thorough 
mental poise. If there is any one in the 
world who needs to keep his mind in a state 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 321 

of hopefulness, brightness, and mental poise, 
it is the man or the woman who, through 
the giving of treatment, is going to influence 
the trend of another^s mind. If good judg- 
ment is needed in any path of life, surely it 
must be needed here, in every thought and 
every act of the healer's life. 

Mental Treatment is not to be considered 
as an indiscriminate act whereby the same 
treatment is made to meet the requirements 
of every patient alike. The healer should 
study each patient and his needs, and this not 
only calls for good judgment, but a wide 
and comprehensive knowledge of human na- 
ture as no two people's needs are ever exactly 
alike. The very highest form of treatment 
is at once the most simple and most effective. 
It transcends thought and suggestion. When 
the woman touched the hem of the Master's 
garment, there had been no preparation on 
His part to give her a treatment as that is 
generally understood, nevertheless, there was 
the instantaneous response from Him to the 
demand that was made in the spirit of faith 



322 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

on the part of the woman. Faith is a far 
greater agent in the cure of disease of both 
mind and body than any form of suggestion 
that man has been able to use in the treat- 
ment of disease. This faith, however, is 
not blind credulity or even belief, but rather 
the substance of things not yet seen and this 
substance, whenever used in the life of man, 
is always constructive in its working. It is 
faith that builds up, faith that repairs, faith 
that causes one to put oneself into whatever 
work one does. Its contradictory, doubt, 
saps one's vitality, destroys one's power to 
work and no real or lasting work is ever ac- 
complished by the mind of the person that is 
influenced by the false spirit of doubt. If I 
were asked what faith is, I could only define 
it as an attribute of the soul, that in its ac- 
tion it can be felt but not seen; something 
that is more real and vital to us than any- 
thing we can think or reason about; some- 
thing transcending in every way both thought 
and reason. I might say that faith is the 
substance out of which all things are made; 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 323 

that Love is the perfect law, and that If a 
person governs his life In the spirit of love 
with a mind animated by faith and hope, 
such a person could never know sin, disease, 
or pain, such a person would have entered 
the fulness of life and would In reality have 
passed from death unto life. Love, faith, 
and hope, living consciously In the life of 
the healer, become the real dynamics, the 
real Intelligent forces or energies that are go- 
ing to overcome any and all kinds of disease 
of mind or body, and the more these Inner 
attributes are cultivated by the healer the 
more effective his work of healing will be- 
come. The healer should be one who has 
awakened to the realities of life and because 
he has awakened, all that is good and true 
In him Is calling or suggesting to those who 
are asleep to awaken, to enter consciously 
into, and live the life of faith, joy, and hope 
— the lawful life, the orderly life, the strong 
life that all must live. When, In the process 
of time, they have unfolded to their innate 
powers and possibilities. As I have said be- 



SM SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

fore, the healer must recognize all stages or 
degrees of human life; he must recognize 
that there are many planes of thought and as 
many planes of expression; that all the way 
up from the earthy or sense-nature to the 
borderland of man's spiritual or heavenly 
nature there are the varying degrees of par- 
tial consciousness which call for assistance, 
for help in the supplying of each one's needs ; 
that the highly developed or rational man 
requires even more help, because of his more 
complex nature, than the elemental or physi- 
cal man who is living a simple life, partaking 
more of the physical than of the mental con- 
sciousness. Only as the mental healer is fully 
conscious of this can he hope to adjust his 
treatment to every plane of being and be 
uniformly successful in all his work. Again 
I must reiterate my statement that the healer, 
in using silent suggestion, must make in his 
mind, clear thought-images of what he wants 
his patients to be or to do; clear, concise, 
and intelligent, because he can not expect that 
his patient will receive them in a clear, defi- 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 325 

nite way if they are vague or unsatisfactory in 
his own mind. The healer, too, should be- 
ware of vain repetitions in his suggestions; 
he will not be heard by his patient because 
of mere repetitions. It is not the many sug- 
gestions but the power in the suggestion. It 
is not the length of time occupied in the giv- 
ing of treatment, but rather that state of 
mind in the healer which is thoroughly cen- 
tered wherein all thought and attention are 
given exclusively to the needs of the patient. 
All the great forces of nature are silent; it 
is not the thunder which harms, but the 
lightning. It is not the spoken word that is 
most effective, but the silent thought. The 
unseen, the unheard feelings are more subtle 
and more powerful in their effect than any- 
thing or everything else; therefore, the 
healer should rely upon the great forces of 
life rather than upon their outward expres- 
sions. Love and faith are more powerful 
than thought and reason; thought and reason 
in turn are more powerful than words and 
acts. The healer must begin at the heart of 



326 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

life and, working from there out, he will 
have real adjustment not only to the inner 
life but also to the outer. Using the real 
energy, the true life and intelligence, there 
will always come the true outer response, 
the perfect outer expression of a perfect 
inner life. 

There is a marked difference in the way 
different people respond to mental treatment. 
Occasionally there are people who are healed 
instantaneously of serious troubles; with 
others you may note rapid changes taking 
place from day to day; while there are some 
where the improvement is so slow that it is 
scarcely discernible; and, finally, a compara- 
tively small number of people who seemingly 
derive no benefit either mentally or physi- 
cally. I use the term seemingly because 
no one can tell that the effect of the treat- 
ment may not be felt at some future time, 
even if there is no present response. In 
mental healing these varying conditions are 
described as receptivity or non-receptivity. 
It is a difficult matter to define in a thorough 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 327 

way the causes of these varying conditions. 
In a general way one might say that a bright- 
minded, hopeful person will respond much 
quicker than the gloomy and morbid person, 
or the person who Is prejudiced and fault- 
finding. A patient who cooperates with the 
healer will find that the result of such effort 
will more than repay him for the effort put 
forth. He should try to think of himself as 
he wishes to become ; to think of his body as 
being an Instrument of mind and will, and 
hence sufficiently able to carry out all that he 
wishes to do; to think of his body as being 
whole and strong and not only to think of it, 
but also to try and realize that he is healthier 
and happier. In doing this the patient is 
establishing a new habit of right thinking 
and feeling about his body, and when the 
habit Is once thoroughly established his body 
will become what he has felt and thought 
about it. So-called material remedies should 
be laid aside because, when the mind is 
divided between two opposing methods, little 
good can come from one or the other. The 



328 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

person who Is thoroughly satisfied with his 
material remedies has not yet come to the 
place where he is ready to be helped by 
mental or spiritual treatment. In the taking 
of treatment a patient should do so of his 
own volition and not because of his being 
urged by someone else. New Thought re- 
spects the rights of the individual to live 
his own life, and In doing this, one must be 
left free to reach one's own conclusions. It 
may be said by some that, in their desire to 
see people relieved of pain, they think they 
are justified In urging them to take treat- 
ment; it may be quite In order to lay the 
whole question before people but it is not the 
part of wisdom to press or to urge them. 
It is far better to leave them free to reach 
their own decisions. Elsewhere I have said 
that the oflice of the healer Is to help his 
patients to help themselves; and the chief 
factor In healing Is the awakening in the 
mind and soul of the patient his own latent 
powers and possibilities, and It is through 
such an awakening that the mind Is renewed 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 329 

and the body made whole. If the patient 
understands this aright he will know that he 
can retain his renewed mind and his physical 
health only through the use of the new 
power, the Inner mind that has come to him. 
It is possible to retain It only through using 
it, and the more one uses it the more one 
will have to use; for it should be known that 
when intelligence and energy are used to 
their full capacity for the accomplishment 
of good ends and purposes, there will be an 
ever-Increasing influx, a greater Intelligence, 
a greater life, since the supply is always 
sufficient for the demand when we are in 
right relationship to the Source of our being. 
No patient should ever expect the healer to 
do the work that only the patient himself 
can do. The office of the healer is to show 
the way, to call out new light, to encourage 
and inspire the patient, so that he may get 
an entirely new perspective of life. 

There Is a tendency among some mental 
healers to give definite form to their treat- 
ments, sometimes by first writing out a series 



330 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

of treatments and then committing them to 
memory. This, at best, is unsatisfactory; 
the healer may use them for a few times 
with satisfactory results, but after a little 
they fail to give results, and the reasons for 
this are as follows: for the first few times 
one uses a treatment one is able to put into 
it a certain amount of inner feeling, and the 
thought with the accompaniment of feeling 
is effective, but anything committed to 
memory and repeated over after a time be- 
comes automatic in its action and the feeling 
passes away; in fact, it becomes simply a 
vain repetition of words that have lost their 
life and meaning, and are no longer able to 
stir a patient's inner feeling, or even quicken 
his mentality. The giving of treatment must 
ever be a renewing process, not only for the 
patient but also for the healer; only as a 
healer lives in the newness of life is he going 
to be able to impart newness to another's 
life. There is a constant leaving of the 
things which are behind and as constant a 
pressing to those things which are before. 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 331 

People lose the brightness and joy of life 
because they go round in a circle, living over 
and over again the things of the past, when 
they should be trying to get out of the 
present all that it has to give. Let the healer 
in giving his treatment realize first of all, in 
his consciousness, his relationship and that 
of his patient to the Source of all Life; that 
he is one with this Source, that he Is one not 
only with the Source but with his patient; 
that the same life, light, love, and truth that 
animate his being animate also the life of his 
patient. After this Inner realization there 
will be no difficulty In finding true sugges- 
tions for that part of the treatment which Is 
to take form in thought; these suggestions 
will be filled with vibrant power because of 
the true feeling which preceded them; they 
will be effectual in their action because the 
mind will be thoroughly centered, and the 
Universal Will will act as the force to pro- 
ject them from the healer's mind to that of 
the patient. The healer will have set up 
not only a new vibration in his own mind 



332 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

and body but a living vibration in the mind 
and body of his patient. A treatment is thus 
seen to be two-fold in its action; that is, a 
treatment wherewith the healer benefits and 
uplifts his patient also benefits the person 
who gives it. All mental treatment given 
when one is in the spirit of love and faith is 
positive in its action, and in this condition 
only positive, or true thought-pictures con- 
cerning life can enter the mind of the healer. 
There is no denial, only light overcoming 
darkness, only knowledge overcoming ignor- 
ance, only health overcoming disease, only 
power overcoming weakness, only faith over- 
coming doubt, and love overcorning hate; 
it is an overcoming from first to last, and no 
unreal, no unclean thought-pictures can enter 
the mind of the healer or be transmitted to 
the mind of the patient, for "All is of God 
that is or is to be, and God is good." This 
is the straight and narrow way that leads to 
that life wherein all unrealities pass away be- 
fore the coming of the Sun of Righteousness, 
before the coming of that day when man 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 333 

shall pass from death unto life, from hu- 
manity into Divinity, and consciously enter 
into the glorious liberty of an eternal son of 
God as joint-heir with Christ. 

There are many people who, while believ- 
ing in the efficacy of the treatment for so- 
called nervous diseases, nevertheless, when it 
comes to something which they speak of as 
real physical disease, believe it can no longer 
be of benefit and that only materia medica 
can do the work. But some time we shall all 
come to know that there is only one Source 
of Healing, and that we can not place any 
limitations upon that Healing Power, that it 
is, indeed, able to heal mind and body to the 
uttermost. Man is the instrument through 
which that Healing Power acts, and his 
knowledge of the law through which it acts 
may be limited, so that the instrument is un- 
able to transmit sufficient life and intelligence 
to awaken the corresponding life and intelli- 
gence awaiting recognition in the mind of his 
patient. In our blindness we are continually 
placing limitations upon ourselves; through 



334 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

ignorance we build walls which seemingly 
separate us from God and our fellow-man. 
Limitations are not of God; limitations are 
of the devil, the father of lies, and the devil 
is of man's own making; that condition of 
mind and thought which is called selfishness 
wherein a man believes himself to be separate 
and apart from God and his fellow-man. 
This is a state of outer darkness which later 
is to be dispelled by that Light which is to 
enlighten every man that cometh into the 
world. Hence, limitations exist only in order 
to be overcome; one form of disease re- 
sponds as quickly to Universal Power as an- 
other. All disease is caused by sin; all sin 
is lack or want of conformity with the laws 
of God. Conformity with law destroys all 
sin; when all sin is destroyed there will be 
no more pain, disease, or death. Sin, dis- 
ease, and death are all of man's making. 
Life and health, law and order, all have 
their beginning and ending in God. There 
is a law of the Spirit of Life which, when 
once consciously realized in life, frees us 



MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL 335 

from the man-made law of sin and death. 
The Founder of Christianity found It no 
more difficult to heal the so-called Incurable 
diseases of His time than any other form of 
disease. He did find, however, different de- 
grees of receptivity on the part of those He 
healed, one person being healed by touching 
the hem of His garment when all the doctors 
of that time had failed to prove of benefit; 
while for another person it was necessary to 
spit on the ground, to anoint his eyes with 
the clay, and tell him to go and wash in 
the pool of Siloam. It was also said that 
in one place He did not do many great 
works because of their unbelief. No, let both 
healers and patients know that there is no 
limitation to the power of God In the healing 
of the sick; that the only limitation that can 
exist is one's lack of receptivity; that, If 
one Is receptive to the Indwelling Spirit, then 
healing of both mind and body must ensue, 
"for if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus 
from the dead dwell In you. He that 
raised Christ from the dead shall also 



336 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit 
which dwelleth in you." The Gospel of the 
Nazarene is a Gospel of glad tidings; of a 
recovery of sight for the blind; healing for 
the sick; release to the captives and the pro- 
claiming of the acceptable year of the Lord. 



Chapter XVI 
Self-Healing 



SELF-HEALING 

In another chapter we have discust the 
question of Healing as it applies to the giv- 
ing of Mental Treatment by one person to 
another. In this one I propose to consider 
how one can best heal oneself. Elsewhere I 
have stated that adjustment to one's inner 
and outer life was the true solution to a 
whole, healthy life. Many who are anxious 
to acquire knowledge and understanding with 
a view to the real betterment of themselves 
often make the mistake of neglecting many 
things because they are small or insignificant 
and seem to have no real bearing upon what 
they are trying to do. The so-called insig- 
nificant or little things have far more to do 
with the development of character than one 
usually supposes, and it will be found that If 
the little things are attended to in a thorough 

339 



340 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

way that the habit of right thinking and act- 
ing formed in this way will extend itself to 
the greater things; that in order to do any 
great thing in a true way it is first necessary 
to do things right in a small way. The man 
who sets himself to work to overcome the 
little mistakes and errors In his life will find 
himself daily growing stronger, daily better 
able to accomplish what he sets out to do. 
We fail In the great things because we have 
given but little attention to the small things. 
Anything begun In a right way Is much surer 
of being finished in that way than if one 
started wrong. Right words and right ac- 
tions should be the natural outcome. If a 
man could feel quite sure that he was think- 
ing right about all he Intended doing, then 
later In the doing of it he would get a satis- 
faction and a pleasure that could never come 
to him If he were uncertain as to the truth 
of what he had thought. 

Thoughts are the seeds of words and 
deeds, and every seed must produce after Its 
kind. If one sows the seed of a weed, the 



SELF-HEALING 341 

more he tills the soil afterward, the easier 
is he going to make it for the weed to grow. 
If one thinks a wrong thought, and later tries 
to make it plausible to others in word or 
deed, one is in much the same position as the 
person who cultivates the weed. People who 
think one thing and say or do another need 
never expect to escape the result of their 
own false or unreal thinking. 

In order to heal oneself, let It be first un- 
derstood, that healing can never be accom- 
plished by any outer means or process. That 
one must naturally begin with the seed one 
sows and that one should never think it 
possible to reap a harvest of good from any 
other than good seed. We reap what we 
sow in exactly the same kind. Let us look 
at some of the things which stand in the way 
of self-healing — the little foxes that destroy 
the vines. When we are thinking, sometimes 
thoughts enter our minds to which we would 
feel ashamed to give expression in spoken 
words; that being the case, why should we 
allow them to find an abiding-place in our 



342 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

minds? There is only one way of turning 
them out, and that Is through establishing 
other thoughts of a higher and a truer nature 
and doing It at once. 

We do not overcome anything simply by 
opposing It but through the substitution of 
something else. The real will always over- 
come the unreal, just as certain as light over- 
comes darkness. So we must begin by ex- 
ercising control over our thoughts, thinking 
only those thoughts which If fully exprest, 
would prove productive of good. In our 
thinking It does not necessarily follow that 
because our minds are centered on getting 
all the good, and all the benefit we possibly 
can for ourselves, that there Is necessarily 
wrong In that. The wrong would consist In 
the personal effort to get good at the expense 
of others without giving any real or just 
equivalent for what we are receiving. We 
have a perfect right to desire good for our- 
selves, If we are willing to pay the price for 
such good. Everything that Is to make one 
stronger or better, healthier or wealthier 



SELF-HEALING 343 

vshould come to one because of the price one 
has paid or is paying now. 

When one breathes out, a certain effort is 
necessary in order to do it, but then one is 
repaid by the influx of pure air with prac- 
tically no effort in receiving it on his part. 
If we get something for nothing then we are 
not adjusted to life's laws, so that even tho 
we may be in possession of that thing we are 
not its rightful owners because it is not ours, 
and sooner or later we must lose it. We 
may just as well come to know, first as last, 
that for everything we get in this life in a 
righteous way we must pay the price; and 
whenever we expect or require anything from 
any one else, it is because we are giving that 
ourselves. We should never expect of any 
one anything that we are not giving as freely 
ourselves. Kind words seem but little things, 
and yet kind words, to be real, must have 
come from kind thoughts. What we think 
and feel toward others we may legitimately 
expect others to feel concerning us; more 
than this no one should expect, and more 



344 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

than this no one will ever really receive. 
For eternal law is absolutely just in all Its 
rendering; with what measure we mete It is 
measured back to us again. It is foolish for 
one to use pleasant words and do what look 
to be good deeds If one's thought and feeling 
are not in accord with one's word and deed. 
It is barely possible that people may be de- 
ceived by them, but one never deceives one- 
self and each renders his account for all that 
he thinks, feels, or does. 

In some degree one may cover up and 
hide from other people what one is, but one 
can never cover up or hide anything from 
oneself. Every one Is judged by his own 
ideals, and the Ideals which are going to 
judge him are those he sets up for other 
people. That Is something that most people 
overlook, that the Ideals they hold for others 
are In reality their own Ideals to be lived by 
themselves for themselves. What, then, we 
may expect from others we muSt willingly 
give to others. Kind words and deeds should 
always be an expression of kind thoughts and 



SELF-HEALING 345 

true feelings. Let us know once and for all, 
that everything we think, whether it be a 
small thought or a great one, is the seed that 
will bring to us exactly what we have 
thought and that if things come into the life 
that are undesirable it is simply because we 
have put into action, at some time, thoughts 
which are bringing to us their full return. 
The purely selfish thought in the mind of any 
one begets a harvest of selfishness from many 
others. We often wonder why people can be 
so unkind and so lacking in generosity in 
wounding our feelings, when in reality it is 
our own thoughts and feelings that have 
been the sole cause of calling out toward us 
such thought and feeling from them. 

Life is exactly what we make it. Every- 
thing depends upon how we think and how 
we feel, because through our thought and 
feeling we become related to other people 
and establish either a true or a false rela- 
tionship and our own health and happiness 
depend to a marked degree on this relation- 
ship. That which we are consciously think- 



346 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

ing or feeling, no matter whether we give 
any outward expression to it or not, is a 
literal call to every one we are brought in 
contact with to enter into the same conscious 
thought and feeling and become one with it. 
In the light of this we can see, when thought 
and feeling are being directed aright, what 
an enormous power we must become for 
good, not only for the uplift of the self but 
for the uplift that we may bring to many 
others; and we can also see that the reverse 
of this must have its effect not only in bring- 
ing discord and unrest into one's own life, 
but all the discord and unrest it succeeds in 
calling out in the lives of others. Make the 
beginning true in the small ways and the 
little overcomings, and it will not be long 
before one is able to do the larger things. 

When one puts on a pair of smoke-colored 
glasses, even on a bright sunshiny day, every- 
thing looks smoky and it is just as much so 
to the wearer of the glasses, as if the atmos- 
phere were really smoky or cloudy. We 
have mental glasses that make everything 



SELF-HEALING 347 

seem different from what it really is, glasses 
of gloom that shut out the light and cause 
us to see everything in an unreal way. We 
try to justify ourselves for wearing such 
glasses; circumstances have interfered with 
our lives, pressure of environment has been 
too hard, other people have been unkind or 
disagreeable, but our justification is as unreal 
as the gloom we have made for ourselves. 
Seeing everything in an unreal light tends to 
make us morbid, and because we have, in a 
state of despondency or gloom established a 
wrong relationship to our environment, we 
go on step by step, until we really seem to 
be obsessed by gloomy, unhealthy, discordant 
thoughts and unreal feelings. 

It is just as easy to put on the rose-colored 
glasses and it makes one so much happier; 
the world becomes such a bright glowing 
world, and something of that which we see 
and feel, we are able to radiate to the lives 
of others. What is the use of worry or 
anxiety? What is the use of despondency 
and doubt? Of what service is fear or 



348 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

gloom? They are all unreal conditions of 
mind that have made for untold mental and 
physical anguish. Why perpetuate anything 
or any condition that makes for unhappiness? 
That makes for mental or physical pain? 
We all have our burdens, and every man his 
own burden, but why add to them? One 
thinks his burdens too great to bear and hav- 
ing reached that conclusion foolishly goes 
and takes on still other burdens. Every un- 
real thought, every unreal emotion, adds to 
one*s burdens in life. 

Life is to be lived, and there should be 
nothing negative in the living of it. Nature 
shows us that there is a ceaseless activity, a 
never-ending growth. A negative, gloomy, 
despondent man is really a contradiction to 
life and its ceaseless activity; in that state 
of mind he is the greatest blot on the face 
of nature fulfilling no duty to himself or to 
any one else. Such a man can never be 
physically healthy; health comes from a 
harmonious activity of mind and body. We 
may have every good thing in life if we are 



SELF-HEALING 349 

willing to work for it; work is necessary to 
one's salvation. No one's life can be rightly 
adjusted to God or man without such work. 
It is when one is idle that the most vicious 
and idle thoughts disturb the life. A man 
or woman who is engaged in some work that 
both heart and mind are centered upon, has 
little time for gloomy, idle, or unreal dis- 
cordant thoughts. 

One must learn to use everything that one 
is in possession of. Mental or physical riches 
are not intended to be hoarded up but to be 
used. All increase must come from use. All 
decrease and waste are the result of abuse, or 
of lack of use. People often say that they 
want to lead the best life possible but that 
they do not know how. Such a statement is 
not true; to some degree every one knows 
how. Every one knows that certain kinds of 
thoughts, feelings, and actions induce har- 
mony, and that harmony is necessary for 
happiness; every one knows that certain 
thoughts, emotions, and deeds produce men- 
tal discord and unrest which result in un- 



350 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

happiness and, therefore, no one need say 
that he wants to be this or to be that, but he 
does not know how. Whatever makes for 
greater peace, greater joy, greater harmony 
is, of a necessity, good. But as I pointed 
out before, things must be proved good 
through their use, and no one can get good 
from any thought or ideal which is never fol- 
lowed by action. 

There is no time for idleness in life. 
When a person is asleep he is not idle, but 
only renewing his energy so that he may 
afterward carry on his daily work in a 
vigorous way. When a person is at play he 
is not idle, he is using mind and body, per- 
haps, fully as much as if he were at work; 
he is producing a change of mind, so that 
when he returns to his work, he will bring 
something newer and brighter to it. We 
see through our own nature that there is ob- 
ject and purpose in everything; and so life 
as it is lived by each individual must have 
its objective ends which are to be wrought 
out through purposeful action. 



SELF-HEALING 351 

But one may ask, what has all this to do 
with self-healing? My answer is that it is 
self-healing; that whatever we do, and do in 
the right way, is continually making for 
greater strength of mind and body, while 
dissipation or abuse of one's energies leads 
to weakness and decay. Hence, all unreal 
thinking, and all false emotions, and the un- 
real expressions which flow from both, are 
destructive of both mind and body; not in 
the sense that one's mind can ever be entirely 
destroyed, or that one individual soul can 
cease to be, but in this sense, that one's 
natural development is retarded, that instead 
of life becoming easier and brighter one is 
confronted by new and greater obstacles all 
the time; that one's burdens in life, under 
such conditions, are continually assuming 
greater proportions and day by day life is 
being made harder to live. We are losing 
so much that rightfully belongs to us by re- 
fusing to see the good that is ours, by refus- 
ing, even when we do see it, to make it our 
own to enter into and enjoy it. 



352 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

All things are ours, but for everything we 
receive in this life we must have rendered 
some service. There is time and place for 
everything that Is real, but there Is no time 
or place for the unreal. All that Is unreal 
Is negative, Is nothing In and of itself. The 
negative-minded person may endow negative 
or unreal conditions with life, and power, 
and even Intelligence, but after all they are 
only the bugbears of his own mind. They 
all belong to the outer darkness and are all 
conjured In one's false Imagination; but 
while one Is under their spell It all seems 
real. A nightmare or a dream seems real 
while one Is under its Influence; there are 
just as many unreal nightmares during the 
day as during the night, In fact, the night- 
mare of the night Is the natural sequence of 
the false or evil Imaginations of the day. 

How shall we banish these unreal specters 
from life? What magic shall we use to de- 
stroy them? **Be not overcome of evil, 
but overcome evil with good." It is simply 
a question of overcoming and there is only 



SELF-HEALING 353 

one kind of overcoming that counts, that is 
the substitution of the true for the false. 
When one is in a dark room there is no 
mental argument about the overcoming of 
darkness with darkness, or the overcoming 
of darkness with anything save light; the 
turning on of the light dispels the darkness. 
The turning on of a true thought dispels an 
evil one; the turning on of a true emotion 
banishes a false one. Every real thought, 
every true emotion gives the lie to the con- 
tradictory false thought or false emotion. 
When one has entered into the Divine con- 
sciousness, everything which in any way con- 
tradicts divinity is left behind, just as truly 
as when one is going to the light one's 
shadow is left behind. Every affirmation of 
truth carries within itself the denial of any- 
thing and everything that may seem to con- 
tradict it. There is no death, there is no 
evil. Death and evil are simply measured 
by degrees of good and of life. Man 
measures everything according to the degree 
of his development. Life and Intelligence 



354 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

are but one tho there are varying degrees 
of outer expression. Life and Intelligence 
are both within and without the whole visible 
universe; sin and death exist solely in the 
unenlightened consciousness of man; they 
are not to be found as realities throughout 
God's great Universe; they are both of 
man's own making. 

Eternal Life and Love, eternal Light and 
Intelligence, eternal Ideal and Expression 
are the only realities; the One is in the All 
and the All is in the One. All then that is 
real must have its source in the One and 
must of necessity partake of the same Life, 
the same Attributes, the same Qualities; the 
only question can be one of degree. Such 
a consciousness in the life of man brings with 
it all that heart or mind can desire. Such a 
consciousness is a living contradiction to any 
law of sin and death. Such a consciousness 
means the living under the law of the Spirit 
of Life: being guided and directed aright. 

On the way to such realities there are 
many stepping-stones, many ways and means 



SELF-HEALING 355 

necessary to a full realization. Everything 
used to the attainment of this end will par- 
take, to some degree, of its original Source. 
Mental brightness, greater hope, fuller faith 
are all so many necessary steps in the upward 
way. Peace of mind, clear thought and 
reason, are aids in throwing light on life's 
pathway. Joy in one's work, concentration 
and perseverance are aids in bringing one 
nearer the goal. Loving kindness exprest in 
thought, word, and deed will bring us closer 
to God and man. The use of every attribute 
of soul, the use of every faculty of mind will 
bring about perfect expression, for It is 
necessary that the inner ideal should take 
form and be a true symbol, or fully repre- 
sent outwardly that which already exists In 
the Inner life of man. 

The bodies of men and women will. In 
some future time, express a greater degree 
of perfection than was ever exprest by Spar- 
tan or Greek of the olden days; and each 
body will have a beauty and a perfection all 
Its own. There shall be no pain to distort, 



356 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

no disease to disfigure, no death to destroy, 
but only an ever-increasing life, for man 
shall then have that habitation, that body 
which is eternal in the Heavens, which is 
eternal in the Divine Plan when he has 
overcome, when he has put all things under 
his feet, when he has entered into the real 
mastery of his own life. 

The Creator has given unto each of His 
children a Kingdom to rule, the Kingdom of 
his own life, a life filled with wondrous 
powers and possibilities, a life which must 
become filled with joy and gladness, a life 
which must express Innate power through In- 
nate Intelligence. The Plan, the Way lives 
In each life; the Plan must be understood 
and the Way must be worked out. Each 
must understand his own Plan, his own Way ; 
each must work out his own salvation. Every 
effort directed aright is one step onward 
and It will never be necessary to take that 
step again, for when something is realized 
once. It is realized for all time. Temporarily 
It may seem to be lost; the real riches of life 



SELF-HEALING 357 

are never lost. Day by day, week by week, 
we may add to our possessions, but that 
which has once been acquired can never be 
lost. Life Is accumulating; we can never 
lose but must always gain. 



Chapter XVII 
Healing at a Distance 



HEALING AT A DISTANCE 

Altho many persons believe in the heal- 
ing efficacy of present mental treatment, yet 
some are not at all disposed to admit that 
treatment given from a distance may prove 
beneficial. And others, while acknowledging 
the fact that cures are effected through absent 
treatment, attribute such healing to faith in 
the mind of the patient, who, knowing that 
he is receiving treatment believes that his 
benefit is the result of it, while in reality it 
is simply the result of his own mind. 
I confess that this was my own belief when 
I first considered the matter, and for a long 
time I refused to give absent treatment be- 
cause of conscientious scruples about receiv- 
ing money while uncertain as to whether I 
was giving a real return. For more than a 
year I carried on a system of experiment — 

361 



362 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

the details of which it is unnecessary to re- 
late here — until at last I became fully con- 
vinced that, under proper conditions, absent 
treatment was as beneficial in its effects as 
present treatment. 

I grant that it is an exceedingly difficult 
matter for many persons to believe that any 
effective result can come from the absent 
method of giving mental treatment, if they 
continue to view human life as it has been re- 
garded in the past. If we consider men and 
women as distinct units, each having a sepa- 
rate existence — entirely independent of any 
other entity — the problem becomes more com- 
plex and harder to solve than when considered 
from the spiritual scientists' point of view. 

A Hindu Swami, referring to the saying 
of Jesus, "Love thy neighbor as thyself," 
said, "Thy neighbor is thyself." This fully 
accords with the Apostle Paul's statement 
that we are members of one another, and 
that in the Christ-spirit we realize this unity, 
01* oneness, of life. If we can conceive of 
humanity as being one great body, to which 



HEALING AT A DISTANCE S6S 

every Individual soul is related in one way 
or another, then the action known as ^'absent 
mental treatment" is neither so mysterious 
nor so miraculous as viewed superficially, it 
may seem to appear. 

I know that I have the power to affect dif- 
ferent parts of my own body through center- 
ing thought on those parts or withdrawing 
thought from them; also, that I can in- 
crease or decrease, at will, the circulation of 
the blood, or life force, throughout any part 
of my physical organism. Now, if an indi- 
vidual is able thus to produce a definite effect 
In or upon any part of his own body, he, 
being an inseparable member of the great 
body of humanity, is able to produce an 
analogous effect on some other part of the 
larger whole. Whether or not he is conscious 
of this, he does inevitably produce such ac- 
tion, whether for good or for ill; so that 
joy or sorrow in one mind certainly affects 
the rest of humanity. Persons are often de- 
prest without apparent reason; again, they 
are frequently joyous and happy without be- 



364 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

ing able to perceive the cause that brought 
about such a state. But these emotions exist 
because of the relationship established by the 
individual with either deprest .or joyous men- 
tal states of the great ocean of humanity. 

The earnest seeker after truth should first 
strive to understand the law regulating his 
own being, because, whether he knows it or 
not, everything that occurs, little or great, is 
the result of eternal and unchanging Law. 
All the disease and discord of life flow from 
a lack of understanding of Law in its appli- 
cation to human affairs. Every inharmonious 
or discordant state, whether mental or physi- 
cal, shows a lack of conformity to the law. 
These states should prove to the truth-seeker 
that knowledge of law is the first requisite, 
and obedience to its requirements the second. 
These essentials present, every discordant 
note would disappear from his mind and the 
perfect harmony of life become evident; for, 
knowing the law and its application to his 
own life, he would thoroughly understand 
the law that governs the entire body of hu- 



HEALING AT A DISTANCE S65 

manity. The whole force of his life would 
be so directed as to influence any part, and, 
to a certain extent, all parts, of the grand 
mental and physical organism of man. 

In the giving of absent treatment, then, 
there must be something more than a belief 
In the mind of the healer as to the unity, or 
oneness, of life. He must have a realization 
that he is one with the All, so deep that it 
starts from the very soul of his being; he 
must know that all are God's children; that 
God's life and Intelligence animate each and 
all; and that life and intelligence are re- 
stricted only by one's capacity to receive, the 
Influx being ever as great as the demand. 

The mental healer can not permanently 
give health, strength, or happiness to another's 
mind or body; but he can throw light on the 
way of life, making clear to the patient the 
true course. The healer sows the seed; God 
gives the Increase. The treatment of another 
mind consists in awakening It to new desires 
and new aspirations, rather than In giving 
something that the person does not already 



366 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

possess; because the arousing of certain de- 
sires and aspirations will cause the mind to 
turn to the Fountain-head, whence every 
need may be supplied. In the conscious effort 
to affect his patient, the healer realizes, first, 
that he Is one with the Source of all life; 
second, that he Is related to the whole of life 
and to every part or expression thereof; and 
third, that he Is nearer to the life of the 
Individual soul of another than he Is to his 
own hands and feet. He talks mentally to 
the patient as he would reason with himself. 
The union between one soul and another — 
between one mind and another — thus be- 
comes so complete that It might be said they 
actually blend. The thoughts, desires, joys, 
and hopes of the healer fill the mind of the 
patient so that the new, uplifting, higher 
Ideal of life enters his mind. The very 
depths of his being seem to be stirred; and 
the soul, awakening, brings a renewing of 
the mind, which. In turn, quickens every 
action or function of the body. 

This explanation of a subtle process may 



HEALING AT A DISTANCE 367 

seem vague and unsatisfactory to some, but 
to those who have realized the truth of these 
things it will undoubtedly appeal. It Is diffi- 
cult to take mere words, representatives 
of material THINGS, and endow them with 
spiritual meaning; only those that have eyes 
can see; only those that have ears can hear. 
In giving either absent or present treat- 
ments, all formulas should be avoided, as 
they tend to throw limitations about the 
healer. The one necessary thing is to under- 
stand the needs of the patient. When one 
comprehends his own needs, he sets about 
to supply them. This should be the case In 
the giving of mental treatment. The healer, 
having attended first to his own greatest 
needs, may then, out of his own fulness, 
point out the way whereby another's lack 
may be supplied. He should not dwell on 
the evil (or negative) side; what seems to 
be evil Is only the lack of true development 
— Ignorance as to the true direction of the 
power of life. In giving a treatment the 
healer should have but one way In mind, and 



368 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

that the true way. He only confuses another 
mind and makes an entity of evil when he 
denies its existence. It is not the denial of 
evil that makes an undeveloped mind strong 
in the truth, but a knowledge of spiritual 
truth of living realities. 

Many persons are both intellectually and 
spiritually lazy — not wanting to do anything 
for themselves, but willing to have every- 
thing done for them. These people are con- 
tinually in need of treatment; they are like 
a watch, which needs winding every twenty- 
four hours; they live on the strength they 
get from the healer, not generating as they 
should the forces of life for themselves; they 
are not willing to use their own powers of 
mind and soul, but think that, so long as 
they are paying a stipulated sum of money, 
the person treating them should keep them 
in health. Very often they are disappointed 
and they find themselves far from well, 
notwithstanding all the treatment they have 
received. A patient makes a great error 
when he relies exclusively upon the healer, 



HEALING AT A DISTANCE 369 

instead of trying to rise, so far as he knows 
how, through his own power. The patient 
that works conscientiously with his healer is 
the one that will express health the soonest. 
Let him, first of all, try to be bright; to 
look on the hopeful side of things; to think 
thoughts of healtih and strength. This men- 
tal condition tends to make him more re- 
ceptive to treatment ; and, when new thoughts 
and desires enter his mind, let him try to 
give them expression — not to put them aside 
and refuse to act upon them, but to act on 
every new and true impulse. The patient 
taking this course must soon give expression 
outwardly to that which already exists in- 
wardly. Health of mind precedes health of 
body; the whole mind makes the whole body. 
After all, the phrase, ^'absent mental treat- 
ment," does not give the true thought. It is 
used to denote bodily separation only; there 
Is no other state of separateness. There Is 
not even so-called material separation; be- 
cause the very materials that compose the 
body have no separation as between the body 



370 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

of one person and that of another, no matter 
what distance the two may be apart. All 
mental healing, therefore, is really present 
treatment, whether the patient^s body be close 
at hand or miles distant. There is certainly 
a communion — a meeting of mind with mind, 
and soul with soul — regardless of what we 
term respectively time and space. Therefore, 
let the patient drop all thought of separation 
between the healer and himself; let him feel 
that the treatment is going to prove effectual 
— that it is going to accomplish the desired 
result — regardless of time or distance. This 
will also tend to put his mind in a condition 
of receptivity. 

The office of the healer, then, is to impart 
a true knowledge of life to the mind of the 
patient; to dwell on the affirmative side; to 
keep ever before the mind the absolute truth 
of Being — the absolute quality of Love; and 
to throw light on the path of life. This is 
the healer's sole office. Each soul is endowed 
with the faculties necessary to work out its 
own salvation, or, in other words, to come 



HEALING AT A DISTANCE 371 

into a knowledge of its own glory and great- 
ness as a perfect expression of God, con- 
taining within itself the fulness of the God- 
head. As Jesus said, ''He called them gods, 
unto whom the Word of God came/' When 
the Word of God becomes fully manifested 
in the life of man, then does he truly express 
the perfect image and likeness of his 
Creator. 



Chapter XVIII 
Life's Relationships 



LIFE'S RELATIONSHIPS 

Some four or five hundred years ago a 
mystic wrote: 

"Whate'er thou lovest, man, that to become thou must: 
God, if thou lovest God; dust, if thou lovest dust." 

What we put heart and mind Into, that 
we become, that we express. Our habitual 
states of thought make us what we are. We 
form wrong habits and then we are amazed 
at the tyranny the wrong habit exerts over 
us. We do not understand that either true 
or false ideas formed consciously In mind con- 
tinue to live on In the life. That anything 
done once In a definite way, whether It be 
right or wrong. Is easier to do the next time ; 
and becomes easier with each repetition, 
until, at last, it acts almost as a compelling 
force in the life. The action not only pro- 
ceeds from the subconscious mind, but there 

375 



376 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Is something else to be reckoned with — the 
relationship that we have established, con- 
sciously or unconsciously, with other minds 
who feel, think, and act as we do. 

I have said elsewhere that thought and 
feeling act as a magnet to relate us to people 
with kindred thought and feeling, and, con- 
sequently, there is the action of our minds 
upon them and of their minds upon us. 
When such a relationship is once established 
it is with difficulty that we get away from 
Its Influence. A wrong relationship can best 
be broken by the transference of one's 
thought and action In establishing a new and 
opposite relationship to the old one. People 
who think and allow their minds to dwell on 
poverty become related to the impoverished; 
giving out poverty In thought and feeling, 
they attract to themselves the poverty of 
others, and so a false relationship Is formed. 

A true relationship means a mutual giving 
and receiving of that which will better or 
Improve the conditions of all concerned. But 
how Is any one's condition to be improved 



LIFE'S RELATIONSHIPS 377 

by poverty? Again, there are people who 
are continually talking and dwelling on dis- 
ease and pain, whose whole minds are, as it 
were, focused on morbid or diseased anat- 
omy, who recount each pain and ache to any 
one who will listen to them. They are sim- 
ply morbid seekers after sympathy. The 
person or persons who become related to this 
class of people through following in their 
footsteps, thinking and doing as they think 
and do, need never hope to be well or strong 
so long as they continue such relationships. 
The only interchange which really exists be- 
tween them makes for pain and disease. 

Again, we have the fault-finding and the 
evilly disposed mind, which is always attrib- 
uting evil or some ulterior motive to some 
one else's good. Such are, in reality, slander- 
ers of reputation, back-biters, and generally 
unclean and unwholesome people. One should 
certainly shun any relationship with such as 
these, for they poison not only the mind but 
the body; happiness to such people is some- 
thing unknown, and one should shun them 



378 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

as one might a plague. Such a relationship 
stands in the way of all true development 
of mind or body. 

Again, there are those who are narrow and 
bigoted, whose minds are filled with preju- 
dice, who can never see anything from all 
points of view; who have one point of view 
that is all-sufficient; it is among such people 
, we find the carping critic. It is the part of 
wisdom to have as little to do with this kind 
of thinking and this kind of relationship as 
one can. It should ever be avoided. 

And, again, we have the weak, the vacil- 
lating, the person who does not know his 
own mind for two hours at a time, whose 
plans are one thing to-day and something 
else on the morrow; who is elated at one 
moment and correspondingly cast down at 
the next. The establishing of a relationship 
with this particular order of mind spells 
failure in any undertaking. 

I have used a number of illustrations to 
show that the feeling, thinking, and acting of 
an individual in a false way, serves to set 



LIFE'S RELATIONSHIPS 379 

up and establish a false relationship which 
will make for the destruction of one's health, 
peace of mind, and success In life. But while 
all this is true, no individual need allow him- 
self to become related to life In any one of 
these ways ; there Is a true relationship which 
he may use in establishing himself to life, a 
way which will bring health, happiness, and 
success. It Is the way of overcoming; it is 
a way which in every sense contradicts the 
other way; the old one Is the way of sin and 
death, the new one Is the way of life and 
health. 

Begin by establishing right habits of 
thought and action, thoughts which when 
stored away subconsciously will come to 
your aid whenever you are In need, thoughts, 
which will establish a relationship with all 
who are healthy-minded, so that all people 
whom you may be brought in contact with 
may receive to some degree from you and 
give In return. There Is a law of reciprocity, 
of giving and receiving; but we receive after 
the same kind as we give. Let It be known 



380 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

that no man is living for or to himself; that 
his life must, of necessity, produce some ac- 
tion upon the lives of all human beings he 
is brought in touch with, and they in turn 
act on him; that he can not separate himself 
from humanity, altho he has the power of 
choice as to the way he wishes to become re- 
lated to it. 

Feeling and thinking constitute the starting 
point of all relationship ; therefore, whatever 
one's feelings or thoughts may be, these con- 
ditions establish a relationship. Whatever 
we wish to become we must feel and think 
that we are in the process of becoming; then 
other people will come to our assistance and 
the way will be made easier for us. Be 
sure of this one thing that, when others op- 
pose and try to thwart your ways of doing, 
there is something radically wrong in the 
way you are trying to go, something which 
needs a thorough reconstruction. The thing 
you are trying to do may be commendable 
in the extreme, but there must be something 
wrong in the effort you are putting forth. 



LIFE'S RELATIONSHIPS 381 

Remember that like attracts like, and that 
if we are feeling, thinking, and acting right, 
then we should attract to us right feeling, 
right thought, and right action from others. 
If we are not doing this, then at some point 
we must be failing and it behooves us to look 
carefully into our ways and methods, because 
in all true giving or receiving no one is im- 
poverished but all are enriched. One is not 
taking from any one else without benefiting 
that some one else. Mutual giving and re- 
ceiving are the two points that form the 
whole of one of the great laws of life; and 
the only thing necessary to enjoy the benefits 
coming from the action of this law, is to 
stand in the right relation to it. No one 
can do all the giving; no one should desire 
to do all the receiving. The giving and re- 
ceiving are the two ends of one law; shut 
off one end and you cut off the action of the 
other. ''Give and it shall be given unto 
you." "Cast thy bread upon the waters and 
thou shalt find it," after few or many days. 
In the light of this we can see that we hold 



382 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

our destiny, as it were, in our own hands; 
that we can become what we will to become; 
that we can do what we will to do; that 
when we work in harmony with life's laws 
we may reap the full benefit from so doing; 
that when we put ourselves in opposition to 
life's laws we bring the self into bondage; 
we are bruised, blinded, diseased, discordant, 
poor, and unhappy. 

Right relationship demands that we should 
seek to know and understand the one way, 
the only way of life and then follow in that 
way. Sometimes we think that in the doing 
of this we may have to renounce or to give 
up so much that we think is giving us happi- 
ness. We never give up one jot or one 
tittle of anything that is worth having; all 
we do is to add to it a hundred or a 
thousandfold. Life is worth while when 
we make it worth while. All things are 
ours when we put ourselves in right rela- 
tionship to them. Everything that heart or 
mind can desire is within reach, but heart 
and mind must both give out something of 



LIFE'S RELATIONSHIPS 383 

the same quality as that which Is desired, In 
order to make It the attractive power that 
will draw to us what we desire. Self-healing 
comes to us through the healing of other 
selves; success and riches come to us through 
aiding others to success and riches; happi- 
ness is ours when we are giving to others 
happiness. "Whatsoever a man soweth that 
also shall he reap.'' 

Self-healing should mean the becoming 
every whit whole and, hence, It is not a 
practise extending over only a short period 
of time, but a daily effort throughout life. 
In case people may be deterred because of 
this unceasing effort, let me say this, that 
we live only one day at a time and It Is the 
day that we are living that should concern 
us most. Each day contains its own possi- 
bilities. Each day, if rightly lived, brings 
something new to bear upon life. Realizing 
this one will never become discouraged by 
the fact of the ceaseless effort after true ex- 
pression, for there is no monotony in the life 
when an ever-expanding Ideal is continually 



384 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

calling for larger expression. It is only the 
idle thinkers and the idle doers whose lives 
become monotonous, or the occasional person 
who thinks and acts In an extreme way; and 
It Is because such extremes are followed by 
reactions that he suffers the monotony of 
having to do over what has apparently been 
done once before. There is no monotony in 
true living. Each day calls for a new ad- 
justment to life, a new adjustment t^ one's 
own Ideals. One is writing his book of life 
and on each page there is something new; 
something that shall help us to live life In a 
larger way. It Is the ceaseless, untiring effort 
which counts and, I might say here, that all 
truly directed effort is untiring. People be- 
come tired because they are not doing things 
in the right way, and this entails upon them 
the doing of them over and over again, until 
they have acquired perfection In their doing. 
Anything that one dislikes to do, one will 
never be able to do well, and sooner or later 
everything we have to do must be done In a 
perfect way. If people could realize the 



LIFE'S RELATIONSHIPS 385 

truth of this they would save themselves a 
great deal of mental distress as well as physi- 
cal effort. It is the people that put both 
heart and mind into their work who succeed. 

The world needs capable men and women, 
and the capable man or woman is the one 
who always tries to do everything in the 
best possible way. We may be aspiring to 
do a greater work than we are doing, but 
we should know that we shall quickest come 
to the doing of that work through doing in 
the best possible way the work we are en- 
gaged in. We should learn to rejoice in the 
work of our own minds and hands. If one 
is doing a small work and doing it in a per- 
fect way one is rendering a truer service to 
oneself and humanity than if one were doing 
a larger work in a partial or imperfect way. 
No matter what kind of work a man may 
be engaged in, manua-l, mercantile, or pro- 
fessional, he can make his work honorable 
by doing it in the best possible way. 

Remember, that health and happiness are 
both dependent on mental harmony and no 



386 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

one can be a thoroughly harmonious being if 
he Is not engaged in work of some kind and 
If he Is not getting from that work real 
satisfaction. Possibly one may have never 
thought that work and love of work are the 
best medicine that one can take for mind or 
body; but any one can become fully con- 
vinced of the truth of this who will take up 
whatever work he may have to do and give 
both heart and mind to the doing of It. 
Nevertheless one should never be satisfied In 
doing anything short of a perfect work. This 
perfection, of course, is only relative, for 
the something which seems perfect to-day 
may not be so on the morrow since with the 
enlarging ideal one Is ever coming to know 
how to do things in a better way and how to 
live life in a larger way. This being perfect 
In anything is simply using the knowledge we 
are in possession of to live or to do to the 
degree that we know; and it is because of 
doing this that we are shown a still better 
way. All becoming is through doing. Ac- 
tion Is necessary to a strong, healthy life. 



LIFE'S RELATIONSHIPS 387 

Cultivate imagination. No matter how 
true or how beautiful your thought-pictures 
of life may be, there are still larger revela- 
tions of truth and beauty. We should never 
look upon our imaginations as being apart 
from ourselves, something that we are unable 
to realize. The grandest picture that has 
ever entered into the life of man is capable 
of realization. The true imagination is best 
fostered by the conscious effort we are put- 
ting forth to realize or to become what we 
have always imagined. Doing this one keeps 
the mind free from unreal or vain imagina- 
tions which act only to retard one's develop- 
ment, to destroy peace of mind, to bring 
physical pain and disease of body. 

Overcome the unreal by the true use of 
the imaging faculty. Create In mind thought- 
pictures that will give you a joy and a peace 
when dwelling on them. The greater things 
you are able to Imagine, the greater things 
you will be able to perform. If you have 
great ideals know that they exist In your life 
because you are capable of fulfilling them. 



388 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

They have come to you in order not only to 
show you what to do but how to do it. One 
may not always see the way to the accom- 
plishment of the ideal at the time, but just 
as soon as an effort is put forth, the way is 
shown or enough of it to enable one to go 
on giving expression to the ideal. 

I am trying to show that adjustment to 
life is a question of soul, mind, and body; 
that all the true feelings and emotions com- 
ing from one's interior life affect one's 
thoughts, giving them both color and tone, 
and because of this, the body images or re- 
flects something of both soul and mind and 
becomes a true outer expression of inner 
thought and feeling; that it is in this way 
that one becomes adjusted to both an inner 
consciousness and an outer environment; that 
no matter what our plane of development 
may be, it is possible to effect such adjust- 
ment; that the purely physical or elemental 
being may become as truly adjusted to his 
environment as the most highly developed 
spiritual man is in his larger field in life. 



LIFE'S RELATIONSHIPS 389 

The way is not shown to one and withheld 
from another, but in so far as we may know 
that way, we are all expected to walk in it. 
The Way, the Truth, and the Life is open 
to all who may desire to consciously enter it 
and walk therein. But it must be quite ap- 
parent that no one can do this for another; 
each does it for himself. Let no one find 
fault or try to lay the responsibility other 
than where it belongs. Each man must bear 
his own burden; each man makes his own 
burden; he may learn to free himself from 
it if he will, but until he does, he must carry 
with him the responsibility of his own emo- 
tions, thoughts, and actions. We may plead 
ignorance or say that we would have done 
the right if we had known it, but very often 
when saying this concerning ourselves we are 
quick to see the deficiencies and delinquencies 
of other people. What we are able to see 
lacking in others, we should be able to cor- 
rect or readjust in ourselves. 

The person who tries to live life in its 
best possible way will be shown the way. 



390 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

*'He that doeth the Will, shall know of the 
doctrine." It is always in doing that in- 
creased knowledge comes. There is no such 
thing as standing still in life; people must 
move on whether they want to or not. 
Growth may become thoroughly symmetrical 
if we choose the lawful, the orderly way, or 
it may fail to truly represent what the Divine 
Plan intended, so that later on a greater 
effort must be put forth to reform, to re- 
create; for if it lies within one's power to 
make mistakes and get inharmonious effects, 
it also comes within the province of every 
one to correct mistakes, to renew and reform 
either mind or body so as to make them 
conform with the ideal or Plan. 

We but waste time over vain regrets of 
things done or left undone in the past. The 
only way possible for any one to overcome 
a past filled with mistakes is through using 
such mistakes as a means of avoiding others. 
The wise man or woman is the one who is 
taught by experience, who profits by mis- 
takes, who leaves all the past with its vie- 



LIFE'S RELATIONSHIPS 391 

tories or defeats behind, who presses on to 
that which lies before, and lets nothing stand 
in the way of progress. Every victory 
achieved in gaining self-control leaves you 
in better shape for still greater overcoming. 
There is no room for discouragement in life. 
People never succeed in getting anywhere if 
they are downcast or discouraged. Life is a 
battle that must be fought to the end — the 
end of the battle comes only when we have 
brought the whole life into perfect unison, 
and soul, mind, and sense are all at one. 
For man must attain true self-mastery; he 
must unfold to every power, to every possi- 
bility that has been written into life as a part 
of the Divine Plan. 

Powers and possibilities which are as yet 
unknown must become fully disclosed and re- 
vealed in outer expression, before man can 
enter into a full consciousness of his sonship 
with God. The way is an ever upward and 
an ever onward one; we can make it an 
easy or a hard one as we will. We can be 
led by the Spirit within and have all the joy 



392 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

and happiness that comes through harmo- 
nious living; or, we can be dominated by 
self-will and controlled by selfish desire so 
that we seem to be dead and lost to all true 
knowledge of our relationship to God and 
man. Such was the consciousness of the 
Prodigal Son before he said: "I will arise 
and go to my Father." But there is always 
awaiting recognition the consciousness of 
light and truth, so that In the deepest dark- 
ness when one calls for or desires light there 
will come a response to such desire. No, 
there is no room for discouragement or de- 
feat. No matter how dark or how long the 
night may be, the morning comes, bringing 
with It the sunrise of new hopes, new desires, 
new aspirations. 

Slowly, but surely, all humanity Is on its 
upward way, the way which leads all to vic- 
tory, the way which leads to health, the way 
which leads to God. Obstacles may seem 
to beset one on every side, but obstacles are 
only a means for testing one's strength and 
growing strong in the testing. Life to hu- 



LIFE'S RELATIONSHIPS 393 

manlty is becoming filled with a new feeling, 
a new wonder, a new glory. Slowly, but 
surely, the old things are passing away; 
slowly, but surely, all things are becoming 
new. The new day is here for all who are 
ready to step out of the gloom, out of the 
mist of a dead past and to enter into a king- 
dom of Light, Love, and Life that was 
prepared for man before the beginning of 
time, a kingdom that shall be forever and 
forever. 



Chapter XIX 
From Mind to Mind 



FROM MIND TO MIND 

Two subjects, Telepathy, or Though t- 
Transference, on one hand and the Law of 
Attraction on the other, are so intimately re- 
lated that we need to have some understand- 
ing of what might be termed the law of 
magnetic attraction before we can fully un- 
derstand telepathy or thought-transference. 

Flammarlon has said that telepathy should 
now be classed as a science; Sir Oliver Lodge 
takes practically the same position, and de- 
clares that telepathy is a scientific fact. A 
great many people will take exception to the 
statements of Flammarlon and Lodge; but 
here are two men, both of them given to 
scientific research, who have spent years of 
their lives examining Into this and similar 
questions. That they are, therefore, better 
qualified in every way to speak than people 
who have paid little If any attention to the 
subject at all, goes without saying. 

We find, however, that while thought is 

397 



398 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

sometimes transmitted from one mind to an- 
other in a most remarkable way, at other 
times there seems to be no communication 
whatever between different individuals, even 
where there is a great desire to be able to 
transfer thought from one mind to another. 
I shall, therefore, deal first of all with the 
law of attraction, and show what is necessary 
in order to establish relationship or adjust- 
ment so as to be able to transfer thought 
from mind to mind. And I should like to 
say at this point that I have had many years' 
experience in this matter, and that what I 
shall say to you is drawn from my own ex- 
perience rather than from anything that I 
have ever received from any one else. 

Sometimes we come into the presence of 
a person, and almost on the instant there is 
something that attracts us to that person; 
again, we come into the presence of some 
other person, and, without any spoken word, 
there is something that repels us. There 
must be some definite reason for this, and 
that reason is not of a superficial order; it 



FROM MIND TO MIND 399 

does not by any means exist merely on what 
we call the surface of things. Because we 
so often, without a word spoken, feel insensi- 
bly drawn to one person and repelled from 
another person, this does not mean that one 
person Is necessarily a good person and the 
other Is an evil person; but what it does 
mean Is that we ourselves are adjusted in 
such a way that we can sympathetically un- 
derstand one person, but fail to understand 
the other person, altho the reason for this 
may not be quite clear to us. The truth is 
that, In so far as we are able to understand 
other people, we can become adjusted to 
them. Failing to understand others, we are 
too apt to attribute motives to them which 
may only have their origin In our own minds. 
It Is not the part of wisdom to judge people 
from any such superficial standpoint, for 
too often our unreasoning thoughts may 
prove very wide of the mark. 

When we are drawn to people, it is be- 
cause we have either something to give them 
or something to receive from them — other- 



400 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

wise there would be no drawing power; and 
when we are embarrassed by people, when 
we are repelled by them, we may just as well 
understand first as last that we have nothing 
either to give them, or to receive from them. 
Nature and the laws of life exact something 
from everyone. If you are not able to give 
something to another, or to receive some- 
thing from another, what possible reason is 
there for the coming together of people 
under such conditions? There should be, 
then, something to give, something to 
receive. There must be, too, what we call 
sympathetic understanding, in order to ce- 
ment the bonds of real friendship. If there is 
no understanding, you may like people in an 
indifferent way, but you will not come to 
care for them in any marked way. But to 
the people to whom we are instantly drawn 
we shall find that we exert a power for good 
over them, or else they exert power for good 
over us, and, therefore, there is a real neces- 
sity for cultivating their friendship ; and there 
is just the same necessity for observing the 



FROM MIND TO MIND 401 

reverse condition. I suppose most of us have 
had the experience of knowing people who 
had never harmed or injured us and yet we 
either disliked or were indifferent to them. 
We may have tried to overcome this attitude 
of mind toward them, only to find that the 
harder we tried the less we understood, or 
were understood by them. 

This should show that there must be some 
real purpose for the coming together of 
people in this world, and unless this purpose 
is in some degree fulfilled, we can not hope 
to get the best results from an effort to es- 
tablish such a relationship which would 
neither benefit one or the other. Remember, 
that there is a law of giving and receiving, 
and that what we give, that we receive in re- 
turn. Whatever seed we put into the ground, 
that seed will bring forth fruit after its kind, 
and, therefore, whatever we desire from 
others, we must be as willing to give to others. 

Now, we may want a great deal from 
others, and we may give but little in return, 
but even if we receive all that we desire, it 



40S SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

will bring no true satisfaction into life unless 
we give in like measure, because for every- 
thing we get in this world, we must, sooner 
or later, give an equivalent, altho that is a 
law to which most people pay little, if any, 
attention. You may say that you know many 
people in this world who are receiving in 
great abundance, tho they are not giving an 
equivalent for what they receive. But you 
are measuring returns by days, or by weeks, 
or by months, or by years — and life is not 
measured in that way. Life is measured in 
an entirely different way. The seed sown 
may take years in producing fruit after its 
kind, but it is absolutely certain to do so in 
the end. ''Whatsoever a man soweth, that 
also shall he reap." Whatever we give to 
the world, the world gives back to us with 
interest, whether it be the something which 
is going to uplift and benefit the world, or 
something that shall bring sorrow and dis- 
couragement into the lives of others. What- 
ever it may be, the world metes it back to 
us again, measure for measure. 



FROM MIND TO MIND 403 

It comes to this, then: that we have the 
keeping of our own lives committed into our 
hands; we have minds to think and souls to 
feel, and through thinking and through feel- 
ing we can shape our lives as we will to 
shape them. No one can do this for us, but 
each individual must do it for himself. 

Nature — all life — requires that first of all 
there shall be giving — not receiving, but giv- 
ing — the giving of whatever we have to give, 
whether it be little or much, and through 
such giving will our store become greater. 
Whatever our possessions may be, through 
righteous giving will come an increase. I say 
"righteous giving." The farmer that scat- 
ters his seed by the wayside is not going to 
reap any abundant crop from so doing. In 
the same way, the person who gives in- 
discriminately is not going to receive much 
benefit, nor confer much good through such 
giving. There is a righteous — a right — -way 
of doing everything, and in the giving, in 
order to be righteous, there must be some 
need; if there is no need, then our giving 



404 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

will not avail anything, either to us or to 
the person who receives from us. And so 
we find that we come in touch with people 
in many ways through giving; that giving is 
sometimes of a material order, and some- 
times it is of an intellectual order, and again, 
it may be of a spiritual order, but all giving 
must be according to the needs of the people 
we are brought in contact with. 

If, then, we have something to give, peo- 
ple will be attracted to us because of that. 
If we have something to receive, we shall at- 
tract to us the people who have something 
to give us. But, remember, this law is a 
perfectly balanced one — we must be just as 
willing to receive as we are to give. A great 
many people say that they delight in giving, 
that it does them so much good to give; but 
when it comes to receiving, they say their 
pride prevents their receiving. If we have 
too much pride to receive from others, then 
surely others should also have too much pride 
to receive from us, and we are doing them an 
injustice if we take any such position as 



FROM MIND TO MIND 405 

that. We should remember that the law 
Is absolutely balanced between the two— 
that It Is through giving that all receiving 
comes, and It Is just as essential that we 
should receive as It Is that we should give; 
because, In order to keep on giving, we must 
be as continually receiving. 

We should try, then, to establish a perfect 
balance between the two. Giving should be 
done with real thought and feeling, because, 
when we put thought and feeling Into what 
we give, then the gift is not a dead, empty 
thing; Indeed, It Is only when we put our- 
selves Into the giving that the gift becomes a 
living thing. Therefore, we need to put our 
best thought and we also need to put true 
feeling Into all our giving. 

Now, because we have given with thought 
and feeling, receiving comes without effort on 
our part. In fact, just as it requires less effort 
in breathing to inhale than to exhale, so It re- 
quires less effort to receive than to give; for 
this Is the law. "Give and ye shall receive." 

Every individual stands related to human- 



406 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

ity in this way: on one side he finds people 
less developed than himself, on the other 
side he finds people more developed than 
himself. He stands between these two con- 
ditions of life. If his vision, then, is centered 
on trying to help the less developed to a 
higher plane of being — whether that plane 
be material, intellectual or spiritual makes no 
difference — if he is helping to lift them to a 
higher plane of being, then, on the other 
hand, he unconsciously becomes related to 
people who are doing exactly the same thing 
for him, to people who shall lift him up to 
a still higher condition in life, to a still more 
developed condition. That is the way In 
which we are related, and you can see at once 
that we must give more attention to the giv- 
ing than to the receiving — that the giving is 
always through an effort put forth on our 
part, and that the receiving is without effort. 
It comes to us, we might say, unsought. 
That is the lawful, orderly way of things. 
In this way, then, we are harmoniously re- 
lated to humanity; in this way we are going 



FROM MIND TO MIND 407 

to attract to us people that we can help, and 
we are also going to attract to us people 
who can help us attain our ends. 

One might say, when it comes to the ques- 
tion of our being helped by others, "Is not 
that view rather a selfish one to take?" 

Everything begins with the self, and 
everything ends in the greater self, or the 
Universal Self. Man has first of all to un- 
derstand something of his own life before he 
can have any true understanding of any one 
else's life; therefore, it is necessary to think 
of the self — we are told that the first great 
law of nature is the law of self-preservation. 
At an early stage in life each person seems 
to feel separated, to be detached from all 
other people; there is no sense of a brother- 
hood of humanity; there is no sense that 
we are members one of another, but upper- 
most in the mind is the instinct that the self 
must be preserved, regardless of anything or 
anybody else. That is the first step in the 
upward way, and it is a necessary condition 
to know and understand, before the larger 



408 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

understanding comes. Everything, then, be- 
gins with the self. "Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself." We are not asked to 
love our neighbor more than ourselves, but 
only "as ourselves.'' We are not asked to 
do something for our neighbor or for any 
one else that we should not feel was also the 
best thing for ourselves. "Whatsoever ye 
would that men shall do unto you, do ye 
even so unto them." We see here the 
self note coming in: "Whatsoever ye would 
that men should do unto you . . .'' 

This is the true action of law. Therefore, 
the law respects the rights of the individual 
just as much as it respects the rights of the 
many. There is this perfect understanding 
of the self: that the self must become thor- 
oughly conscious, first of all, of itself, and 
then of its relationship to the rest of hu- 
manity, and when it becomes conscious in the 
first stage, it is later going to become con- 
scious in the succeeding stages in a greater 
degree. 

The preservation, then, of the self, and 



FROM MIND TO MIND 409 

the care of the self, is just as necessary as 
the preservation and care of any other self 
or selves. It Is merely when the self Is given 
undue prominence — when the whole mind re- 
volves about the self — that development Is 
Impeded. But when the mind loses itself, as 
It were, in feeling and caring and doing for 
others, then will come this same thought and 
care on the part of others for such a person. 
But there is something deeper than our 
thinking that attracts people to us. Some- 
times we are attracted to people by what 
they think. We meet with some one with a 
very bright, intellectual mind, some one who 
can take up any question and discuss it in a 
strong, forceful way, and we are interested, 
but after a time his presence begins to pall 
upon us — there is something lacking — there 
is some note that has not been struck, and 
we become conscious of that. Again, we 
hear a brilliant speaker, and while we are 
listening, we are much Interested, but 
afterward we forget practically all that has 
been said, and we wonder why it is. Then, 



410 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

again, perhaps, we may hear some one else 
who does not speak so well, and yet he 
leaves a lasting impression upon us. We 
ask: "Why Is It?" It is because we can 
have mental development without soul de- 
velopment. You ask again: "What is the 
difference between mental development and 
soul development?" We may be able to 
think and reason and have very clear minds, 
and yet be unable to leave any lasting Im- 
press upon any one else's life. Why is it? 
Because the real dynamic — the real power — 
that moves our lives, is what we feel and 
that stirs us, not only to mental action, but 
to physical action, too, and, therefore, it Is 
the most essential thing In life, not merely 
to think or reason, but to feel. When you 
feel, then you will become a power in the 
world, but you will never become a great 
power in the world until you develop inner 
feeling. Feeling is as much a development 
as thinking or reasoning, but remember, 
feeling Is something that Is deep down 
in every one's life. The reality of life 



FROM MIND TO MIND 411 

comes from what one feels. That is what 
the Scriptures mean when they tell us to 
"feel after God." We come in touch with 
people through what we feel. Through joy, 
through hope, through faith, to reach out 
and touch the same qualities in the lives of 
other people, is to cause an awakening — we 
are giving them something. A bright, hope- 
ful, joyous mind does far more good in this 
world than all the medicine any one can take. 
It not only does far more good to the person 
who has that bright, joyous mind, but it does 
untold good to the world in which such a 
mind lives. Now this law of attraction calls 
out In other people what we have stored 
away In our own lives, but it calls out simply 
on the more superficial side — the side of 
thinking and reasoning. People will find 
that we are interested in certain things, and 
they will want to talk about those things and 
become interested, too. But when there is 
something that Is very deep and strong and 
true in our life, then people are carried away 
— they are affected by it in the same way 



412 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

that we are — we draw out from them what 
we have felt in our own lives. If we want 
people to have faith in us, have faith in 
them. That is the only way. If our minds are 
continually filled with doubt as regards other 
people, then other people will harbor all 
kinds of doubts in their minds about us. 
We are sowing the seed. What other people 
think shall come back to us, and we shall 
reap the harvest of the seed we have sown. 
So that whatever we give, that thing is going 
to return. Why not, then, give just that 
which is going to bring back an abundant 
harvest, a harvest that will bless the life, 
instead of bringing sorrow and pain as the 
result of the seed sown? 

There is, you see, this something in each 
and every one of us, both as regards our 
thinking and feeling, which we might say is 
invisible and inaudible, talking to other peo- 
ple, so that it is not necessary to open one's 
mouth to be understood by some people, be- 
cause often there is a sympathetic relation- 
ship existing between one soul and another. 



FROM MIND TO MIND 418 

Now, this feeling or sympathy existing 
between different individuals plays a very 
great part in thought-transference. When 
humanity as a whole becomes more de- 
veloped, then thought-transference will be- 
come a very easy matter. It is already so, 
indeed, with some people at the present time. 
Feeling is the dynamic which moves the 
thought. Supposing we go to work and get 
our minds thoroughly centered, but with no 
force behind that centering, then our thought 
will not go out. If we feel something very 
deeply, and then center our minds upon it,^ 
then thought will go out and reach some 
other mind or minds. Certain conditions are 
necessary on the part of the person receiving 
as well as on the part of the person trans- 
mitting. The person who would transmit a 
message to another mind must have, first of 
all, the dynamic of feeling necessary for 
such transmission — the force necessary — ^and 
then, in a clear and concise way, the mind 
should picture the something that it desires 
to impart to the other mind. The mind 



414 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

should keep itself thoroughly centered on 
that picture — should focus its thought on it, 
to the exclusion of anything and everything 
else. The mind of the person who is going 
to receive should be passive and sympathetic 
— making no mental effort even to receive. 
Very often, even where people are sympa- 
thetically related, the mind of the person 
who is to receive may become so active as to 
prevent any receiving. Again, almost like a 
flash of light, regardless of distance, one 
mind may receive thought from another. 

You ask: "Of what particular benefit is a 
knowledge of telepathy going to be to any 
one?" and it is fair that that question should 
be asked. If there is no particular benefit in 
it — if it is only going to gratify some idle 
curiosity, then it would indeed be useless to 
know it; but if there is some decided benefit 
to come from the transmission of thought, 
then it will be well for us to know something 
about it — how to use it in the right way, be- 
cause we can use it in a right, or a wrong, 
way. Every good thing can be put to a 



FROM MIND TO MIND 415 

wrong use, and the greater the good that any 
particular thing does when it is put to the 
right use, the greater evil it does when it is 
prostituted or put to a wrong use. There- 
fore, if we are going to use the transmission 
of thought merely to influence some one 
else's mind to get them to be or to do what 
we, for some selfish reason, want them to be 
or to do, it would be far better to have no 
knowledge as regards thought-transmission, 
because then we should not, to the same de- 
gree, be responsible. We are responsible for 
what we think and for what we feel, because 
what we think and what we feel are con- 
tinually affecting the lives of other people. 
You can understand, then, how much more 
responsible we become just as soon as we be- 
gin to know something of the underlying 
law. You can see at once that if we are 
given knowledge, and we are using that 
knowledge for a selfish end, or to get some 
one else to do something for us — if we are 
using that knowledge to bring the force of 
our will to bear upon another mind so that 



416 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

that other mind may not fitly represent its 
own thought and its own feeling, then we 
are exerting an influence on other people that 
is not only injurious to them, but will be in- 
jurious to ourselves. People have no right 
to cause others to do anything that they 
themselves do not wish to do. Thus, we 
have no right to interfere with the will of 
any person. Each individual must live his 
own life; he must, of course, respect the 
rights of everybody else that he comes in 
contact with, and if he does not respect those 
rights, other people will not respect his 
rights. When we will a person to do any- 
thing, then we are hypnotizing him to do the 
something that we wish, and no matter how 
good we may be, we are making his will sub- 
ject to ours, and no individual will should 
be subject to any mind save the One Mind 
and Will of the Universe. 

Little by little, as we have greater knowl- 
edge of truth, we shall see that with that 
greater knowledge will come the larger free- 
dom, but, remember, that no freedom can 



FROM MIND TO MIND 41*7 

come to the individual if he Is standing In 
the way of any one else's freedom. There- 
fore, we see how necessary It Is In all 
thought-transference, In all telepathy, that we 
should respect the rights of others. 

You ask: "How, then, are we going to 
use this power, Instead of abusing It?" 

We are always going to use It for think- 
ing the best possible things about people, by 
trying to see the good In them, by feeling 
the good in them. In this way we are al- 
ways giving other people a mental uplift. 
Let all the bad go — keep that out of your 
minds — but dwell upon the good. Whatever 
you think about a person, that you are help- 
ing to call Into expression, whatever It may 
be. When you think of weakness and dis- 
ease In a person, you are simply giving them 
the thought that they are weak and diseased; 
and If you put any degree of feeling Into 
that thought, you are making It a still more 
powerful thought, because wherever we put 
the element of feeling, that thought becomes 
a greater power. Now, what right has any 



418 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

one to hold the thought of weakness, or the 
thought of disease, or the thought of poverty, 
or any other false condition in life, over the 
heads of other people? Why not think of 
them as you would like to have others think 
of you? Perhaps you will say that you 
would like to have them think of you 
as being sick and suffering and in pain, for 
some people are morbid enough to like that 
sort of thing. If we like to be sympathized 
with, people will give us sympathy, but all 
such false sympathy will hold us down, and 
will hold them down as well. Whatever we 
want to express in life, we have got to think 
and feel, and we have got to think and feel 
it for others, if we want it for ourselves; be- 
cause if we are thinking and feeling one con- 
dition of life for ourselves, and thinking and 
feeling another condition of life for other 
people, then we are going to be affected by 
both these mental conditions. We shall 
be affected in the right way by our own 
good thoughts, but we are also going to be 
affected in the wrong way by what we think 



FROM MIND TO MIND 419 

and feel that is wrong about any one else. 
We can not form any mental picture, and 
fill that picture with feeling, as against any- 
body else or for anybody else, without form- 
ing it in our minds for ourselves. It will 
live in the life and affect our lives and con- 
tinue to do this at the time we are thinking 
it, and possibly for many years after. 

We are responsible for what we feel, 
and we are responsible for what we think, 
because the thought-atmosphere that every 
individual carries about with him is just as 
real as the atmosphere of this earth, and 
sometimes, you know, the atmosphere brings 
depression. When it is gloomy, when it is 
cloudy, and wet, and disagreeable, we often 
have depression of spirits as a result. Wher- 
ever we have certain physical conditions, 
behind them we shall find mental conditions; 
so we meet people with thought-atmospheres 
that radiate health and strength, and give 
one an uplift; and other people with thought- 
atmospheres that depress and fatigue and 
take away even from the vitality of those 



420 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

with whom they come in contact. How 
often we come into the presence of negative- 
minded people, and after being with them for 
a while, find ourselves devitalized. There are 
a great many people in this world simply liv- 
ing on the vitality of other people; they are 
too lazy to think or reason or do anything 
for themselves; they are always ready to 
accept what some one else thinks, what some 
one else feels, and they are always open to 
all sorts of contagion of the negative order, 
but do not respond to a higher order of 
living, because they have no sympathetic re- 
lationship with that higher order. 

We can attract to us whatever we wish 
in this world. We can attract to us 
health, because through our thinking health 
and through the effort to feel it, we are be- 
coming related to the healthy, wholesome 
minds of other people. This is not taking 
away anything from them; it is only getting 
into harmony with them; instead of taking, 
we are actually giving, when we unite our 
minds with any higher order of thought, or 



FROM MIND TO MIND 421 

when we unite our souls with higher condi- 
tions of true spiritual feeling. 

We can, then, do what we will to do, 
when we will It In the right way. When we 
see clearly what we want to be, and then go 
right on being It, feeling It, and thinking It, 
we shall become all that heart and mind de- 
sires to become. "As a man thinketh In his 
heart, so Is he." The more of mind and 
heart we can put Into everything we do, the 
more wonderful will be the result. 



Chapter XX 
From Darkness to Light 



FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT 

Elsewhere I have said that law and 
order are universal; that the invisible atom 
or electron is as much a manifestation of law 
as our earth or the sun ; that from the tiniest 
conceivable of things up to and including the 
whole universe, law and order reign supreme. 
No matter what phase of life we may ex- 
amine, we shall find no chance, luck, or hap- 
penings, only law and its manifestation, only 
cause and effect. The law is one, but it ex- 
presses itself in countless ways and degrees, 
and because of this man has believed that 
there were many laws and that these laws 
were complex in their working. Neverthe- 
less, unity, oneness, prevails from center to 
circumference. There is one Life, one Law 
that is all in all, but showing itself through 
diversity of expression or manifestation so 

425 



426 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

that no two things in the great universe are 
exprest exactly alike. All have their being 
in the one Life and all take form through 
the one Law, but the divine order which 
makes for the unity of each part with the 
whole makes also for infinity of expression. 
Man in his growth and development re- 
sponds as fully and as freely to the divine 
order of life and law as any other or all 
other manifestations of life in and of the 
world in which he lives. Just the reverse of 
this, however, is what he has believed true. 
Everything else in his world seemed to re- 
spond to the divine law and order but himself. 
Everything had its place and its purpose; 
everything fulfilled the end for which it was 
created ; he alone seemed in opposition to the 
divine Will — a fallen angel who at one time 
had been a child, a son of God, but because 
of wilful disobedience had lost his high estate 
and had become a miserable sinner, a worm 
of the dust. His attitude toward God was 
much like that of the leper who, in drawing 
near to his fellow-men, had to cry out: "Un- 



FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT 427 

clean, unclean." Thus, the highest represen- 
tative of God on earth came. In his own 
mind, to look upon himself as an outcast 
from God, as one who had fallen into the 
greatest depths of sin and degradation. 
Through sacrifice and burnt offerings, 
through sackcloth and ashes, through 
mendicant supplication and grovelling fear 
he appealed to that God, that one- 
time Father, to be merciful and to spare 
him and save him from himself. Yet, all the 
time, unknown to himself, he was fulfilling 
the law of life to the best knowledge he was 
in possession of; and the only high estate 
from which he had fallen came from his own 
partial way of understanding life and Its 
laws. Intuitively he knew that his origin had 
been divine, and yet he was not expressing 
the perfection or the harmony which should 
come from divinity; therefore, he believed 
at some time he must have fallen. He was 
unable to realize that the divine Ideal, the 
Plan of a perfect life, had been written Into 
his life from the beginning, but that every 



428 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

ideal, every plan must take form or become 
exprest ; that the Ideal and the form is last 
and that in the working out of the ideal 
through law and order, the expression of the 
form is a gradual process, and one can not 
judge which the real ideal is until the form 
In the fulness of time is fully exprest. Man 
was always, is now, and ever shall be a son 
of God. He has never been less than this; 
he can never become more than this. The 
Image and Likeness of God was written Into 
his life from the beginning. But it needs 
that man, like the seed, should perish In 
order that he may live. Man, like the seed, Is 
encompassed by an earthly environment; and 
then, like the seed, he begins his long round 
of evolution, the gradual disclosing of the 
Plan. Groping first of all In the dark, he 
Is Imprisoned, as It were, by environment, 
having to struggle and overcome Its pressure 
In his effort to grow toward the light, but In 
the same Irresistible way ever tending from 
the earthly to the heavenly. His sin was 
the sin of Ignorance. He knew that there 



FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT 429 

was something within him making Its con- 
stant demand for greater light, greater 
knowledge. He knew, too, that he had a 
material body and if he followed the desires 
and habits that he had formed because of 
this body, there was a conflict ever going on 
between what seemed to be his dual nature, 
so that in his mind the things that he would 
do he did not, and the things that he would 
not do those he did. Because of this he 
thought himself a sinner against God and 
His laws, and because of this a sense of 
degradation and humiliation entered his 
mind. But all the time he was really re- 
sponding to the law; all the time he was 
growing from the darkness and Into the light. 
Occasionally, when he overcame some 
wrong desire or habit, which he looked upon 
as being evil, there entered his mind the 
sense of satisfaction :ff^hich always comes in 
overcoming, and so he took another step in 
his upward way. The pressure of environ- 
ment from without made it necessary for him 
either to bring greater power to bear on 



430 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

outer conditions in order that he might re- 
tain physical existence, or to effect a new 
adjustment to his environment. This inner 
power and outer adjustment were leaving 
their marks upon his life, the marks that 
show growth and development. These were 
surely being registered in his life, as the 
rings which come to the tree in its annual 
state of growth or evolution. The Plan is 
being worked out little by little, nevertheless, 
in the lawful and orderly way. There was 
no chance, no haphazard of law and order 
from first to last. There were many mile- 
stones in his way of life to be passed, but 
each marked a definite gain. Slowly and 
surely as the growing tree he was expanding 
into a larger life, into a greater conscious- 
ness. Slowly and surely he was leaving many 
things behind and pressing forward to a 
goal that he was not yet fully conscious of, 
altho there was an irresistible impelling force 
that made it necessary for him to press on 
whether he consciously desired to do so or 
not. He had his seasons of inactivity when 



FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT 431 

the whole life seemed to stagnate, when it 
might almost seem as if his movement were 
a retrograde one; but, again, there would 
come the unrest, the longing desire for some- 
thing he was unable to define in mind, and 
with this unrest came renewed activities and 
a fresh ascent on the upward path, the whole 
course a fulfilling of the law. 

The time came in his life when the old 
gods, the many gods of seeming good and 
evil, were relegated to the past, their influ- 
ence and power forever gone, and with their 
passing there had come the knowledge of two 
gods, one God of Good and an opposing per- 
sonality who worked and represented all that 
man called evil. He endowed both these 
Gods with attributes similar to his own. The 
old gods in their characteristics had been all 
of his own making; so with the new Gods. 
The God of Good represented all that was 
highest and best in man, all that was creative 
and upbuilding, but because man believed in 
"an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," 
his God of Good took what he considered a 



432 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

righteous vengeance on all his enemies. Men 
in their battles with their fellow-men believed 
in this God, that He would fight with them 
to gain battles over their enemies. At times 
He was a God of war, again a God of peace. 
The God of Good represented all the forces 
of light, wisdom, and creation, while his god 
of evil represented the outer darkness, ig- 
norance, and disintegration. While he at- 
tributed the greater power to his God of 
Good, nevertheless, there was a constant war- 
fare being waged wherein the victories were 
more or less divided. When a man lived 
according to what he believed his Good God 
to be, there was a sense of satisfaction and 
peace in his mind. He was conforming to 
his highest ideals of righteousness as repre- 
sented by the God he believed in. When he 
disobeyed or failed to live these ideals, dis- 
cord and unrest followed. Believing that he 
had been influenced by the power of evil, he 
shifted the responsibility to his god of evil 
who was made in a way the scapegoat for 
all man's sins and shortcomings. Man in a 



FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT 433 

partial way had been right in attributing to 
his god of evil the negative qualities of 
darkness, ignorance, and disintegration. He 
had been right, too, in attributing to the 
Higher Power light, wisdom, and creative 
energy. His mistake consisted in endowing 
his God of Good with many qualities which 
belonged to his god of evil. He personified 
both good and evil. 

While dimly conscious of law and order, 
he was as yet unable to see that, throughout 
all human experience, all manifestation takes 
place through light and shade. The tree of 
knowledge is of good and of evil. Light and 
good are realities; darkness and evil but the 
absence of the real, the contradictories, and 
by their aid we come to see everything in its 
right relation. All evil is ignorance, and ig- 
norance is overcome by knowledge, just as 
light overcomes darkness. There is no reality 
in evil other than that which the mind of 
man gives it; but for everything that is real 
there is the contradictory or the seeming. 

The greatest lesson man has yet to learn 



434 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Is that all things are good; that evil is no 
thing; that It seems to be but In reality is 
not. Evil Is the outer darkness, ignorance, 
lack. Man's Devil is really the father of 
lies, who was a liar from the beginning and 
his place Is in the outer darkness; no vestige 
of reality attaches to him either as a per- 
sonality or a power. He came into being 
solely through man's knowledge of life and 
its laws. He will pass out of existence when 
man comes to know and to realize that God 
and His creation Is all there Is; that there 
is but one Life, one Intelligence In all, 
through all, and above all, working within 
and without all things; that from the one 
Life and Intelligence comes all there is. 

As evolution continued in life there came 
to man in some degree the consciousness of 
God working through law and order, and 
with such consciousness the necessity for 
formulating laws wherewith he might regu- 
late his own life. His conception of law 
and order was a true one but his effort to 
express that conception was at best only a 



FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT 435 

partial one. Instead of realizing that the 
law had been written into his own life, that 
it was something that always had existed and 
always would exist, something that he could 
neither make nor unmake, he set himself to 
the making of laws for the regulation of his 
own life and it was required that obedience 
to these laws should come from all men 
alike. Ignorance of the law was excused in 
no one, altho men and women were in dif- 
ferent stages of evolution or growth, differ- 
ent degrees of intellect or understanding. 
These laws, instead of bringing order, pro- 
duced still greater discord. With some it 
was much easier because of their greater de- 
velopment, and, consequently, they escaped 
the judgment and condemnation that fell 
heavily upon the lives of others. With the 
coming of the law came also the outcast and 
the sinner. Paul says: "The sting of death 
Is sin; and the strength of sin Is the law;" 
In other words, men made for themselves a 
law wherewith to judge and condemn them- 
selves. Instead of realizing the Supreme 



436 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

Law of the Spirit of Life, they made for 
themselves a law of sin and death. But, 
again, we are not to look upon this as an un- 
necessary work on the part of man; indeed, 
we shall see that, from first to last, knowing 
comes through his tree of knowledge, and he 
comes to understand the reality only through 
his living that which contradicts the real. 
Man's law was necessary in order to bring 
him to a true understanding of the eternal 
laws of God. When such understanding 
comes, then the dream or the nightmare of 
his own law will have passed away before the 
dawning of a new day. In his effort to fulfil 
his laws he has fought evil with evil; he has 
tried to overcome darkness with darkness. 
Most of his laws had to do with negatives, 
"Thou shalt not." The law was intended 
not so much to show people the right way 
of living as to keep them from what the law- 
giver supposed to be the wrong way. Into 
the occasional life, however, has entered 
the helplessness and the hopelessness of ful- 
filling the law, and such a one has called upon 



FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT 437 

his God of Good to aid him in the over- 
coming of the power or powers of evil. 

The varying ideals held to by man mark 
the different stages in his growth and de- 
velopment. Ideals are the mile-posts by 
which the whole life of man is measured. 
All the way through the human life there 
have been some who have entered into far 
greater knowledge than the people of their 
time. These men, giving new and higher 
ideals of living to the world, became the 
means for other men, through thought, 
reason, and contemplation, to perceive the 
truth of the ideals taught and lived by their 
exponents. These ideals were an outer aid 
toward man's inner development, because if 
there is truth in anything, a contemplation of 
it serves to call into a living existence the 
same truth that is latent or potential in the 
life of the person who is contemplating it; 
and so with each succeeding stage of develop- 
ment there would come some representative 
or prophet of some new ideal or new order 
of things. In the fulness of time, or better 



438 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

might I say, in the fulness of law and order, 
there came the beginning of the prophecy of 
man's inner life — the development of inner 
powers and perception; a truer understand- 
ing of man's relations to an inner conscious- 
ness; a closer appreciation of God through 
the indwelling consciousness. The dawn- 
ings of this consciousness we can see coming 
from the first great prophets of Israel and 
later the time came when one of these 
prophets, realizing how little the world of- 
fered toward continued growth and develop- 
ment, compelled by the unrest of his own life 
to seek for a kingdom he had some conscious- 
ness of, the kingdom that was to come, gave 
up the world and the things of the world and 
retiring to the wilderness, separated himself 
from his fellow-man in order to enter into a 
larger life. But because he had a message, 
an ideal to give to the world, the people 
sought him in the wilderness; however, the 
time had not come when, as yet, his message 
could bring peace or rest to the soul. He 
stood, as it were, between the borderland of 



FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT 439 

the old and the new, we might say, giving 
the last despairing message of the old law; 
forsake the world and the things of the 
world, "flee from the wrath to come." There 
was one clear note in the message which fore- 
shadowed the coming of the new: "He that 
Cometh after me is mightier than I, . . . 
he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, 
and with fire." His was the final prepara- 
tion for the coming of the Lord, the Son of 
Righteousness, the Light which is to lighten 
every man that cometh into the world. "But 
the Light was still shining in the darkness;" 
"There cometh one mightier than I, the 
latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to 
unloose," were not the words that would be 
used by a conscious son of God. Neverthe- 
less, the prophetic vision of that which was 
to be shows itself forth: "He shall baptize 
you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." 
The prophet was able to foresee what he 
failed as yet to realize in his own life. 

Clearly the old order was fast approaching 
its end. The law of man had been tried and 



440 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

found wanting. With the advent of the 
Man of Nazareth came the ideal that the 
world had been waiting for, that man to a 
degree had always been conscious of, namely, 
that the seed of the woman should crush the 
head of the serpent. Esoterically, the woman 
means the soul. The head of the serpent is 
all that earthly wisdom or understanding 
which has to do with the gratification of 
purely sense desire and the accumulation of 
material things, all that wisdom and that 
knowledge which think the creation superior 
to the Creator, that wisdom whereby man 
tries to supersede with his own laws, the 
eternal laws of God. In the old order the 
law of man said: '*an eye for an eye and a 
tooth for a tooth." Man's gods of Good 
and Evil were personalities living outside of 
man's world yet having power to influence 
his life for good or for ill; but man stood 
separate and apart, a detached something, 
influenced from without first by one of his 
gods and then by the other, never being at 
peace with either, always fighting the great 



FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT 441 

battle of life in the dark. Through his law 
he at last attained a certain height; he as- 
cended into a high mountain and was able 
to see dimly into the Promised Land, but a 
deep and a rapid river ran between the 
mountain and the Promised Land. He had 
traveled life's journey as far as it was possi- 
ble to go, in conformity with his own law, 
and yet there was the seeming impassable 
barrier to prevent further progress. So the 
old order closed in that darkness which pre- 
cedes the dawn, and the new order was 
heralded in by the songs of the angels: 
"Peace on earth, good-will to men;'' and 
the prophecy of Isaiah, the vision that was 
perceived in the far-away past, was about to 
be realized: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
me, because he hath anointed me to preach 
the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to 
heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance 
to the captives, and the recovering of sight 
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are 
bruised, to preach the acceptable year ef the 
Lord." This, then, was the message. 



442 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

A new Gospel, "the acceptable year of the 
Lord," had come; freedom for captives, re- 
covery of sight for the blind. Henceforth 
for all who entered the new order, who had 
purged themselves from the law of sin and 
death, who had become conscious of their 
real relationship with God, the old things of 
the Old Testament had passed away; for 
them, behold, all things had become new. 

The order that the High Priest, Melchise- 
dec, represented in the far-away time, which 
was without beginning or ending of days, had 
come as a new consciousness to find new ex- 
pression on earth. The Kingdom of God 
had been found in man's inner life. Hence- 
forth that Kingdom of God was to be made 
manifest in man's outer world so that the 
saying of old might be fulfilled, that "the 
desert should blossom as the rose." The 
Logos, the Word, had taken form and be- 
come fully manifested in the flesh. The 
Word that was written into the constitution 
of the earthly Adam, had at last become 
fully manifested in the heavenly Man. The 



FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT 443 

first fruits had appeared on the tree of Life. 
A new Ideal had dawned on man*s horizon, 
and from this time on he would be judged 
by this Ideal, while his failure to live It 
would be his greatest judgment or conviction 
of sin. Whatever sense of sin he had after 
perceiving the new ideal, had brought with it 
a sense of personal responsibility; it was no 
longer the old spirit of evil Influencing him, 
but he saw It now as failure to comply with 
or to live the ideal, something that he and 
he alone had to realize. For a time comes 
in the life of every man when he knows that 
there is no power without judging or con- 
demning him, that his own highest ideals are 
the real judges of life, and when he con- 
forms with their requirements all Is well, but 
when he violates his own Ideals then he 
stands convicted in the light of them. 

The coming sun shows its light on the 
mountain peaks first and the shadows still 
obscure the valleys; so only those who live 
on the mountain heights shall be able to dis- 
cern the coming of the new day and only to 



444 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

them shall it be given to know of the mys- 
teries of the Kingdom of God. In the ful- 
ness of time when the crooked places have 
been made straight, when the way of the 
Lord has been prepared, the whole earth shall 
rejoice in the new day. It was not that to 
see and to know were given to one and with- 
held from another, but rather that growth, 
preparation, evolution were necessary in the 
life before it could become receptive to the 
influx of new life and light. Only the eternal 
law and order was being observed. The 
blossom and fruit were all involved in the 
Plan, but the blossom and the fruit were to 
be the last manifestations on the tree of 
Life. The first fruits simply implied still 
other fruits to follow of the same kind, of 
the same order and quality, but all should 
come in the fulness of time. The way that 
one took in his unfolding was the way that 
all must take. All should die in the seed; 
all should live in the blossom and the fruit. 
If through the eternal laws of life one had 
attained to the consciousness of a son of God 



FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT 445 

and a realization of eternal life then that 
which had come to one is that which shall 
come to all, for thus it is written in the 
eternal law that changeth not but that is ever 
working to one end and purpose that the 
Kingdom of God written into the soul of 
man must find full and free expression both 
in man's outer and man's inner life. 

All must come to the unity of the faith. 
All must come to a knowledge of the son of 
God. All must come to the measure of the 
fulness of the stature of Christ. "If I be 
lifted up," said the Nazarene, "I will draw 
all men unto Me." The power that was to 
uplift Him was to be the uplifting power in 
the All-Life. But each one must come to 
this uplifting in its due order. Only as he 
had prepared the way, as he had gathered 
up the stones, uprooted the thorns and tilled 
the soil would the seed of the Spirit manifest 
itself bringing forth fruit after Its kind. 

In the old order man was at the mercy of 
forces and things external to himself, and be- 
cause he believed in the value of things, his 



446 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

sacrifices for sin were all external sacrifices. 
His religion was one of form, of creed, of 
ritual, and dogmatic assertion. Whatever 
Inner consciousness he had, he believed to 
come through his observance of all the ex- 
ternal requirements of his religion. 

But with the coming of the new all Is 
changed. God, the indwelling Spirit, became 
the ruler, the directing power of life. All 
outer things and even thoughts became sub- 
ordinate to higher feelings, and the realiza- 
tion of the Indwelling Spirit brought with It 
the assurance of life eternal, the mastery 
over things, the destruction of the law of sin 
and death which was now superseded by the 
new law of Spirit and Life. A new con- 
sciousness had come that, while ever enlarg- 
ing, was to be an ever-ascending conscious- 
ness. Man's real book of life had been 
opened and henceforth whatever was written 
In It was that which was to endure. Sin 
and death could no longer defile Its pages for 
the victory had been gained. All the hidden 
powers of the soul had been awakened. All 



FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT 447 

the possibilities of life had become apparent. 
Life was now being lived as it never had in 
the past consciousness. From the Spiritual 
center of being outward, everything was seen 
in its right relation. All things were subject 
to the soul. Dominion and power had been 
realized, first In consciousness, and then In 
the outer action — a dominion and power that 
had made man mentally strong and physical- 
ly whole; had made everything in the outer 
life subordinate to his inner life; had made 
him the master, whereas under the old law 
of sin and death he had been the slave. This 
knowledge of the truth as It was disclosed 
within him brought conscious freedom, and 
placed his mind and will In harmony with 
universal Life and Its laws, Omnipotence ex- 
pressing itself through him In power. Omnis- 
cience expressing Itself through him in wis- 
dom, and Omnipresence, preeminent realiza- 
tion of the indwelling Spirit of God, mani- 
festing Itself both within and without. 

The new order was filled with new joy, a 
joy that had something of the colors of the 



448 SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH 

rainbow, the glory of the sunrise. A new 
hope had come purified of all alloy, a hope 
that, while glorying in the present, neverthe- 
less, realized that there were still greater 
glories to come. There came also a new 
faith that no longer wavered but was eternal- 
ly centered in a spiritual consciousness, a new 
faith that will express itself in new forms of 
beauty, the real substance out of which will 
come the greatest creative work that man 
has ever been able to accomplish. And last 
of all came a new love which shall fulfil the 
whole law, a love that has its source in the 
Eternal Fount of love and wisdom, a love 
and a wisdom which shall radiate from the 
center of man's being to the great circum- 
ference of his world, a love and a wisdom 
that shall be absolutely conscious of its one- 
ness with All-Life, that shall animate every 
thought, word, and act, and thus fulfil the 
perfect Law of Life. Living in this love a 
man shall realize a new Heaven within and 
create a new world without, a world in 
which there shall be no more pain and sor- 



FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT 

row, no more sickness and death, only light, 
love, and wisdom, a world in which God 
shall be all in all and the God-consciousness 
shall be the only abiding consciousness in the 
life of man — the true consciousness of son- 
ship with God and fellowship with man. 



449 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

The Measure of a Man 

CONTENTS 
Tart One Tart Ttvo 

IN HIS IMAGE THE SON OF MAN 

Introduction Introduction 
I. The Natural Man I. The Son of Man as Man 

II. The Rational Man II. The Son of Man as Idealist 

III. The Psychic Man III. The Son of Man as Teacher 

IV. The Spiritual Man IV. The Son of Man as Healer 

"A MESSAGE OF HOPE AND OPTIMISM" 

Throughout he is buoyantly optimistic, and helpful to cour- 
ageous and wholesome living. — Outlook, New York. 

It is pervaded by a ruggedness of conviction that strengthens 
and uplifts the reader. — Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, N.Y. 

The book is one of the most serious and helpful tendency, and 
is to be commended for its breadth. — Globe-Democrat, St. Louis. 

It is written with literary skill, and every line bears evidence 
to the author's sincerity in what he expounds. 

— Times, Minneapolis, Minn. 

A book of hope to such as need a brighter light to a better 
life. — Courier Journal, Louisville, Ky. 

The book is buoyant and optimistic, and teaches the perfection 
of life that follows obedience to natural and spiritual laws. 

— Mobile Register. 
It is the purpose of the author to show the different stages 
and degrees of growth in human life; that the very mistakes and 
sins of men tend to bring about the fuller and complete life; 
that in the grand economy of the universe nothing is lost, but 
that all things work together for good. 

— Epworth Herald, Chicago, 111. 
The author takes a sane, rational, optimistic view of life. Life 
is not degraded, but grand and noble. It is a book well worth 
reading, and will stimulate thought. 

— Midland Methodist, Westerville and Columbus. 
In this volume the author presents a positive, clear, and forci- 
ble appeal for the adoption of the Christian life. The plea for 
a sane, righteous, spiritual life is convincing and stimulating. 
■ — Christian Work and Evangelist, New York. 

8vo, cloth. Price, $z.20, net 

FUNK ^ WAGNALLS COMPANY 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 



A FEW OF THE MANY REVIEWS OF 

Dominion & Power 

BY CHARLES BRODIE PATTERSON 



The book, which it is interesting to note, is now in its fifth 
edition, is practically the exposition of a philosophy of life 
based upon a deeply religious estimate of life's controlling forces. 
. . . The development of the argument occupies twenty odd 
chapters, short, but representing a great deal of thinking, and 
evidently the work of a highly intellectual man and a sincere 
Christian in the best sense of the word. 

— The Weekly Press, Christchurch, New Zealand. 

The book is clear, true, and convincing, written on the highest 
plane, wins confidence, and makes the study of spiritual science 
both a delightful and a remunerative thing. — Boston Ideas. 

A good book is one of the best gifts you can think of making 
to those you love. And when that book is full of thought then 
it becomes a priceless treasure. . . . The book we have in mind 
is of this type, one that relates in simplest word and phrase 
what " Dominion and Power " means when applied to the every- 
day ordering of life. — The Bayonne Standard. 

Lovers of Mr. Patterson's books will find this work one of the 
best products of his genius. It deals with a wide variety of 
subjects, all of which have a direct bearing on individual life 
and character, and upon man's social, spiritual, and intellectual 
relations. — The Light of Reason, London, England. 

It is . . . delightful to find a book that one can recommend 
as a whole, that presents consecutive features worthy the atten- 
tion of the student, of practical aid to the earnest seeker. Such 
a book is the one before us, a collection of essays, styled by the 
author " Studies in Spiritual Science." The spiritual element 
is emphasized throughout in a simple and dignified manner, void 
of that emotionalism that so frequently characterizes attempts at 
spirituality. . . . We heartily recommend its perusal to our 
readers. — The Exodus. 

Among the most notable recent works that appeal at once to 
the heart and brain of the thoughtful is Mr. Charles Brodie Pat- 
terson's new book, '* Dominion and Power." This really vital 
contribution to the unfoldment of the spiritual life will take a 
high place in the richly suggestive and rapidly growing literature 
of the New Thought Movement. It is an earnest, luminous, and 
thoughtful message, presented in a clear, concise, and manly 



manner, embodying the ripest experience ana conclusions ot tne 
heart and brain of a broad thinker, and an earnest, truth-loving 
man. — B. O. Flower, in Arena. 

This ... is an earnest and thoughtful book. . . . The 
purpose of the author is to show that the evolution of the indi- 
vidual soul, or, in other words, of the " Kingdom of God " in 
man, and of its attributes of faith, hope, and love, will lead to 
Dominion and Power — to dominion and power over self, and 
therefore over the universe of which the self is a part. 

— The Literary World, London, England. 

In these days, when the mind of man is reaching out for a 
more comprehensive knowledge of the laws which regulate and 
control life, any such book as this by Charles Brodie Patterson 
is eagerly read. — The Boston Budget. 

" Dominion and Power," by Charles Brodie Patterson, the 
distinguished editor of the Arena and Mind, consists of a num- 
ber of thoughtful studies in spiritual science. Its philosophy 
of life is hopeful, helpful, and stimulating. 

— Progress, Minneapolis. 

Like all of Mr. Patterson's writings, this book will bear 
leading. — Light of Truth. 

It is a book which appeals to the heart as well as the brain of 
the thoughtful reader . . . and will find a warm welcome 
wherever it goes. — Psychic Review. 

Never has it been our lot to read a more uplifting book. 

—Health, New York. 

It is worthy your attention. — Life, Kansas City. 

Each chapter in this book is a revealer of truth. 

— W. E. TowNE, in Points. 
" Dominion and Power " is a notable addition to the New 
Thought literature of the day. 

— The Cumulative Book Index, Minneapolis, Minn. 

The book is one of inspiration to a life of self-helpfulness and 
help of others. — Toledo Daily Blade. 

If one wishes to get a clear and comprehensive idea of the 
New Thought Movement, let him give Mr. Patterson's book a 
careful reading. It is an honest presentation of a subject at 
once uplifting and of deep interest to the thoughtful. ... It 
attracts the reader by the intensely practical application of its 
spiritual message. — The Bookworm. 

8vo, cloth. Price, $z.20, net 

FUNK {b WAGNALLS COMPANY 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 



The Will to Be Well 

By CHARLES BRODIE PATTERSON 



SIXTH REVISED EDITION 



"Life is made up of little acts rather than of great ones. The 
little things we do day by day constitute the real sum of life'' 



" The mind must be balanced if the physical health is to be 
normal. It is useless to strain after physical health through 
conformity to outward regulations alone. Every effort to reg- 
ulate the life from the outside must fail because that is not the 
way God works ; it is contrary to all the laws of man's life." 

— The Author. 

" The author of this book is not a follower of Mrs. Eddy, but 
an exponent of the teachings of the ' New Thought ' as they ap- 
ply to the mind and body, which has developed steadily parallel 
with the Chidstian Science movement. The distinction between 
the two is clearly set forth. Christian Science denies away sin, 
sickness, and death. The ' New Thought ' claims that all three 
have an existence, but an existence that is overcome, not through 
any process of denial, but through the introduction of true 
thought into the mind of man." — St. Paul Despatch. 

" The Will to be Well is not only well written, in a clear, 
fluent and persuading style, but it is morally a very useful, a 
very uplifting and encouraging book, for it is a gospel of optim- 
ism, and its optimism is applied directly and materially to 
counsels of direct and material utility. ' ' — Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 

" When we realize how many of our trials are self-imposed 
we will be ready to learn the truths given in this very practi- 
cal volume." — Modern Miracles, New York. 

*' This author has gathered together and rationalized the laws 
of health, strength and happiness through the control of the 
body by the mind." — Interior, Chicago, 111. 

" Some very sensible words are here spoken in regard to the 
securing of a clean and wholesome life. . . . There is no one 
who will not find much that is stimulating and wholesome on 
these pages." — Herald and Presbyter, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

12mo, Cloth. $1.20 



FUNK ^ WAGNALLS COMPANY, Pubs. 

44-60 East Twenty-third Street, New York 



Living Waters 

OR, 

Rivers to the Ocean 

By CHARLES BRODIE PATTERSON 

CONTENTS 
Tart One Tart Tigto 

LIVING WATERS THE OPEN WAY 

Introduction I. TheNeed of Beligion 

I. The "Well of Knowledge II. The Power of Prayer 
II. The Spring of Happiness III. The Value of "Work 

III. Currents of Self-Control IV. "Women and Freedom 

IV. "Waves of Success V. "Whom God Hath Joined 
V. The Sea of Power VI. Children and Education 

"VT. Tides of Adjustment VII, Life and Its Fulfilment 



" The object of this book," as declared by Dr. Patterson in 
his Introduction, "is to suggest to the minds of its readers 
ways and means whereby a knowledge of the laws of life 
may to a degree be imparted, so that the one seeking to know 
may find later or fuller knowledge and realization in his 
own life." 

The motive and spirit of this book find summary in the 
further statement that "It is always easier to do right than 
it is to do wrong." 

12mo, Cloth. Price $1.20, Net; by mail, $1.30 



FUNK ^ WAGNALLS COMPANY. Pubs. 

354-360 Fourth Avenue, New York 



[See Preceding Page} 

Salient Sentences From 

LIVING WATERS 

Or, RIVERS TO THE OCEAN 

By CHARLES BRODIE PATTERSON 

We enter into the real possessions of life only as we pay 
the price. 

The man who shirks the work and the duties of life, by so 
doing destroys the very integrity of his own life. 

Live up to your highest prerogative and there will be an 
ever increasing gain. 

Man is ever dying to the old and living to the new. 

The law never discriminates, but all reap what they sow. 

We are one with all power ; and we can be what we will to 
be, and we can do what we will to do. 

Let no one deceive himself by thinking it possible to have a 
magnet made of iron that will draw pure gold from the invisible. 

The tendency of all life is from that which is partial and 
incomplete to that which is whole and complete. 

Power has been given unto all men to live their lives to the full. 

The life that has a reserve power is the one that wins in the end. 

A true lover of the beautiful never waste his time in looking 
for and pointing out flaws. 



In his Introduction the author says : 

"I have described this book as 'Rivers to the Ocean.' 
Solomon has said that all the rivers run into the sea, yet the 
sea is not full, and from whence the rivers came, thither they 
return again. Each soul that cometh into the world has written 
into it the image and likeness of God. All souls come out of 
the Invisible, and are exprest in form — all souls eventually 
return to the Invisible, when all that has been written within 
has become fully manifested without." 

12mo, Cloth. Price $1.20, Net; by mail, $1.30 



FUNK €f WAGNALLS COMPANY. Pubs. 

354-360 Fourth Avenue, New York 



OCT 3 1918 



